Just like video killed the radio star, Amazon killed the town centre.

Or did it? What if our town centres aren’t dying, but simply evolving?

This is a subject close to my heart. As a councillor, I worked with colleagues to launch a town centre regeneration plan for Wick, my hometown.

A 60-second history of Wick

Once upon a time, Wick was a booming herring port and civic centre for the county. It was Thomas Telford’s only planned town, with elegant townhouses arranged in neat grids around the thriving harbour. His influence is still tangible in the atmospheric streets, Caithness flagstone and leafy Argyle Square.

The harbour, having fallen on tough times, is midway through its own revival. Pleasure yachts jostle for space in a beautiful new marina, sharing the waters with an offshore wind farm that’s injected new energy into the port – literally and metaphorically.

Robert Louis Stevenson is another famous name associated with Wick, his father Thomas having tried and failed to design a breakwater at Wick Harbour. Safe to say Robert was underwhelmed by the town, calling it ‘the meanest of towns on God’s baldest of bays’.

It’s hard not to think of those words when you venture past the harbour into Wick town centre. I love my home but the town centre does feel dismal. Several fine historic buildings lie abandoned and shops boarded up. The paving, street furniture and signage are tired and unloved, and there’s barely a soul to be seen.

Fighting a losing battle

When I was elected as a councillor, I was full of big ambitions. One of my most cherished plans was a regeneration of the town centre, to reinstate a sense of civic pride.

Working with colleagues, we were able to secure some national investment in the built environment. That physical improvement is still on the cards, though Covid and the brutal economic environment have slowed progress considerably.

Yet it always felt like we were fighting a losing battle. Every time we took a tiny step forward, a bank announced its branch closure. Or a shop went bust.

How could we convince the branches to stay open? How could we entice people back into the high street shops?

After a couple of years licking my wounds, I think I finally have the answer: we can’t.

Change is inevitable

Bear with me here. Trying to lure people back from the cheapness and convenience of supermarkets and online shopping – right when we are busier and broker than ever – is as futile as turning the tide.

Likewise, the relentless march of technology will see banks, post offices and public services continue to move much of their activities online. Change is scary, and sad, but it’s also inevitable.

So what will become of our town centres when the banks have cleared out and half the shops gone bust? I think they will roll in the doldrums for a few more years, then we will start to see green shoots emerge.

Civic planners have already cottoned on to the idea of mixed-use town centres. Where once our high street was filled with shops, the future will look like a mix of housing, offices, event space, hotels, pubs, restaurants – and a handful of shops.

It makes sense, when you think about it. Retail can’t drag people back to our town and village centres.

Instead, we can rebuild our town centres with people at the heart of them.

Imagine large, multifunctional event spaces. Office space shared by several businesses, encouraging collaboration and socialising. Affordable housing appealing to enterprising young people who want to be in the middle of the action.

The shops that survive will be the ones with the best offering. Truthfully, when you think of the shops that have gone to the wall in recent years, can you also remember the last time you shopped at any of them? I can’t.

And really, we can continue to pack our high street with bookies and pound shops, or we can try something new. A mixed use precinct characterised by a small number of quality shops selling distinctive local produce.

Win, win, win

It won’t happen on its own. It needs planning officials to lead the way, and government to smooth the path with rent and rates relief. It probably also needs a revamp of compulsory purchase orders to allow communities to take control of abandoned properties without shouldering all the legal and financial risk.

Progress is already being made – and I hope to profile some of the most innovative work in this blog. I am also told that public services such as banks and post offices are looking at having one shared service point in each community.

Imagine if local authorities led the way on that? Councils already bear the cost of service points in larger communities. With new ways of working, they need less office space than before Covid – and they certainly need to save money.

Back to Wick, where the council occupies a large, modern, purpose-built office right in the town square. What if they added a single counter where customers can get help with their council enquiry, pay in a cheque, post a parcel or find support from the Citizens Advice Bureau?

I can’t think of a better example of a win-win scenario than the service providers saving money and consumers benefiting from the convenience of accessing it all under one roof. Throw in a cafe and it’s also a social space for the (mostly) elderly and vulnerable people who have not made the leap to online services.

If we move with the times, if we follow human nature instead of fighting it, our town centres could be reborn as bustling civic spaces.

There’s nothing bald or mean about that.

Has your town centre suffered, or soared? What steps do you think could help it?