Council disappointed at being 'overlooked' in The Sun 'ghost town' article about Berwick

The town centre has had a difficult start to the year as Home Bargains closed earlier this month so it could open a new store at the Loaning Meadows Retail Park on the outskirts of town.

Also, M&Co announced that all of its stores – including its branch in Berwick – will pull their shutters down for good at Easter.

The shutdowns may have been the catalyst for an article in The Sun earlier this week which described Berwick as a ghost town.

It quizzed people in the street about why they thought the area had declined – they said high building rents and business rates, car parking issues and a lack of affordable housing were to blame, while another said whilst one resident said flowers “don’t get planted until August”.

Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council responded by saying it was disappointed the positive aspects of Berwick were not mentioned.

It also says The Sun “didn’t actually contact Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council”, despite claiming it had done so in their article.

The council said: “We'd love to have a conversation with them to tell them the other side of the story.

“We’re not sure how they overlooked us; their photographer would have had to walk past our office to take the photos used in the article. They might have been staying in one of our lovely boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts, or in the recently opened Premier Inn down by the historic Quayside.

“Reference is made in the article to shop windows on empty units being decorated to brighten up the town – we could have given the photographer directions to the shop that’s already been decorated in this way and we could have explained our plans to do more.

“Out of town retail parks are a huge challenge, but the number of people shopping there suggests they're hugely popular too. Berwick has hundreds of listed buildings in its historic town centre; demolishing them to make way for modern retail units was never an option and retailers tell us they want modern units big enough for their range of goods.

“That made the decisions very hard for Berwick and we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't point out that centrally appointed planning inspectors took away much of the control from local councils in cases like Berwick's Tesco development back in 2008.

“The thriving independent traders in streets like Bridge Street and West Street in Berwick are shining examples of what could be done if we had the resources and the local control necessary to work with landlords who often want help to address the impact of the changes on their properties on our high streets.”

The town council also mentioned projects that have been completed in recent months – the new leisure centre in Tweedmouth and seaside play park in Spittal – and ones in the pipeline such as the hospital and new theatre and arts centre projects, as well as the town’s popular parks, tree planting projects and “our wonderful beaches and astonishing coastline”, all of which suggest a town which is not in decline.

The full statement can be read on the Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council Facebook page.