Our communities need high streets

The closing of high street shops at an alarming rate shows the contempt this Government has for our ageing population. Millions of people over the age of 65 who are not computer literate or who don’t want to do their shopping through a computer are suffering.

Our small high street shops need help to compete with the mega stores, and fast.

Bravo to the Mirror for picking up the gauntlet – after all, whole communities are at stake.

On many occasions the daily shopping trip down the high street is the only chance our pensioners get to meet people. If that is taken away it will result in a very lonely life. Roger Grant

Thurnscoe, South Yorks

Well done on your campaign to save our high streets. In order to do so there must be an urgent programme which incorporates measures such as the lowering of business rates.

Multinational concerns such as Amazon must be forced to pay their fair share of tax, which could be used to offset the decline of the high street. Only a Labour government which acts for the many, not the few, can sort this mess out. Otherwise, thousands and thousands more high street jobs will go and, before long, Britain’s high streets will be reminiscent of ghost towns.

High street stores need to lower their prices. You can buy a decent jacket for £20 on Amazon, but a high street shop may charge £50.

If the high street shops weren’t so greedy, people would use them more. This rise of cheaper online shopping shows that for years the high street stores were over-charging.

Nichola Lowe, Manchester

Part of the trouble I have found is that when I tried to get three music books locally, I could only order one in either WH Smiths or Waterstones, and the others were only available for sale through Amazon. I wanted to get them all in town but couldn’t.

P J Wiles, Plymouth

What’s happening to our oncethriving town centres?

They used to be full of shops, pubs and banks but they are all disappearing. Just look at how many household names have gone into administration over the past few years. We must stop the rot or our high streets will have only empty, boarded-up shops.

Theresa May isn’t helping this country and after Brexit things will only be worse with more big companies threatening to pull out.

Dave Mellor, Warrington

People destroy jobs and ruin our high streets by using these online services instead of local traders. Stop using them, and support your town and city shopping centres.

Michael Elias, Carmarthen

One of the biggest problems is the big supermarkets sell everything from pots and pans to electrical goods. There’s practically nothing these giants don’t sell, so what chance is there for our high streets to survive?

Helen Nash, via email