Empty shop numbers in Cannock Chase towns on the rise

It comes despite efforts to attract independent retailers and high street chains into Cannock, Hednesford and Rugeley.

The largest rise was in Hednesford, where three more units became empty taking the total of vacant premises to seven.

Those closures were offset by the opening of new stores including a Tesco and Aldi as part of the town's £50 million transformation – but appears to confirm the fears of smaller traders that they would suffer at the hands of the big names.

The figures, for June this year compared to the same month in 2012, show the number of empty shops in Rugeley has increased by two to eight. In Cannock town centre there were 13 vacant ground-floor units in key shopping areas in June this year, compared with 15 in the same month of 2012, a net rise of three empty units across the district.

The figures were presented at a meeting between town centre regeneration bosses from Cannock Chase Council and representatives from the three towns' traders' associations yesterday.

Bob Phillips, the district council's head of planning and regeneration, said further surveys would be conducted to map the change in the number of vacant units, with a view to finding ways of filling the spots..

Hednesford's new development has not been included in the survey.

Councillor Linda Whitehouse, who represents the Rawnsley Ward, said traders in Hednesford were seeing improvements, having struggled to pull in customers over the past three years.

David Wisehall, of the Hednesford Traders Association, added: "We have had a tremendous amount of money spent in Hednesford and it has been very well received."

However, Sheila Dunning, events manager for Cannock town centre, said she was 'embarrassed' by the state of the high street in her area.

She said: "I was driving some foreign guests of mine through Hednesford and they were very impressed.

"I felt like putting my head in the sand because I thought, 'How am I going to bring them to Cannock'?"

It was agreed at the meeting that the committee would be the primary vehicle for the debate about how to improve the performance of the district's town centres going forward.