In its weekly voxpop, the Advertiser found out what Newarkers think of turning empty-shops into rent-free emerging businesses.
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00:05 Yes, very much.
00:07 People probably go in and think about the ones and that one thing.
00:13 Do it for a while and they'll see how it goes and then they'll probably have some one.
00:18 You know, take them on.
00:19 Definitely I think there should be, I agree with them being rent free
00:23 because it'll benefit the town by the fact that people come in,
00:28 they see empty shops, it puts them off and people won't come back.
00:31 But if they see the shops full and busy, it just encourages it.
00:35 And especially around the marketplace, it's a lovely marketplace we've got.
00:38 We certainly don't want closed shops around the marketplace.
00:42 It just gives a bad impression.
00:45 In order to get more people to come into the town, then you need to open the shops.
00:52 We've lost Marks and Spencers.
00:54 It looks very much as though we're going to lose Wilkinsons.
00:57 We hope not.
00:59 You've got to fill them. You can't just leave them empty.
01:04 You may as well let them free and get people to come and shop like we do.
01:10 But we're not going to keep...
01:13 We go to shop online, you know, and we like to come and go into a shop and buy.
01:19 But this, the market now is dying on its feet and they've got to do something with that.
01:25 Whether it's free usage of the area, I don't know.
01:32 But something's got to do to fill this up.
01:35 You look around here.
01:37 It's all going to close down, isn't it?
01:39 It'll get worse and worse.
01:41 It's such a shame.
01:42 Which is a pity.
01:43 No, I think it's a very good idea.
01:46 I think a lot of people get very concerned when they see empty shops.
01:51 It feels as if the town's on a downward slide, but actually it isn't.
01:56 I think that Newark's never been as...
02:00 I don't know, it's such a good place to shop as it is now.
02:03 I mean, we've got some really nice outdoor cafes where you can sit and have a meal, blah, blah, blah.
02:10 I think it's improved considerably.
02:13 So I'm not terribly worried about a few empty shops,
02:17 but I think it would be a good idea to let people use them,
02:20 that can get their business started and then perhaps they can rent them.
02:25 I think it would be beneficial to have the shops free for a while, yeah.
02:29 Maybe put people in town, yeah.
02:33 Yeah, because the town's nearly empty, isn't it, at the time, yeah.
02:37 So, yeah, I think it would be OK.
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