Nothing but a ghost town...
Apr 14 2009 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette
TEES Valley’s high streets face a battle for survival in the worst recession in decades.
Boarded up shop windows, deserted streets and the death-rattle of retail failures mark the descent of once thriving shopping centres into ghost towns.
Year-on-year UK retail sales growth slowed to 0.4% in February - the smallest annual increase since September 1995, as cash-strapped consumers reined in their spending.
But locally regeneration chiefs have unveiled ambitious plans to attract new investment that they hope will lift the high street - Lazarus-like - from its death bed.
