Last week in the County Press, my friend and colleague Matthew Chatfield tackled the thorny subject of retail decline in the Island towns.

But rather than take the “we’re doomed” position, Matt took the view that things were far worse in some mainland towns, smaller shops were still thriving and we didn’t want those nasty big boys anyway.

As the late, great Meatloaf almost sang…”one out of three ain’t bad”, Mr C.

Ryde, Shanklin and Cowes may be in fine fettle but there can be few towns more badly hit than our county capital.

The announcement last week of the departure of H&M, the closure of the Game store and the imminent sale of long-standing business Eyeland Optical at the bottom of the High Street.

Far be it from me to argue with the great mind of Mr Chatfield, or that of Cllr Julie Jones-Evans who is putting heart and soul into making Newport look better (with some good results).

But shopping in the town is not a great experience. I recently needed a match-quality football for the Titanic encounter between veterans teams Real Socialdad and Real Vectis Veterans (the latter and better team won).

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Back in the day, I would have had a choice of several great little sports shops, such as Chevertons, Island Sportswear run by Margaret Hilsum and the late Ann Dent, and Sanders Sports, a Mecca for all  things athletic and all manner of sporting gossip, ran by my friend Roger Sanders.

However, today, it is Hobson’s, or Ashley’s choice, as Sports Direct, the vast South Street barn/jumble sale, masquerades as a sports shop.  

I asked the assistants where to find the footballs and they could only point me to the two for £28 special offer…no choice, little quality.

I know Ryde and Shanklin still have locally owned sports shops but it is clearly a sign of the times when the ‘capital’ cannot support one.

But this minor first-world problem is symptomatic of the decline of the high streets and Mr Sanders, as recently as two or three years ago, recorded at least 40 empty premises in Newport.

So what is the answer?

I don’t claim to be an expert in town planning but how about this for a bullet-point strategy:

  • Negotiate the remaining shops out of the upper High Street into the lower High Street
  • Turn the Upper High street into a pedestrianised and combined residential/leisure zone with  restaurants/bars etc
  • Make the squares similar leisure zones with spaces for markets/events
  • Promote Nodehill as the small shops zone for the town
  • Take up the Tory plan from two years ago to bulldoze County Hall and re-energise the area with brownfield housing

This may not be perfect but it is surely a starting point…and then we can get started on the Sandown regeneration.