AS high streets opened up again this week, calls are being made for new life to be breathed into Aberystwyth’s beleaguered main shopping thoroughfare.

Great Darkgate Street reopened with a slew of empty shops abandoned by big chains on Monday.

Retailers including Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Clinton Cards, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Clarks and M&Co have quit the street – leaving a large proportion of empty properties.

Now there are calls for help to attract local businesses to the street.

Plaid Cymru candidate for the Senedd, Elin Jones, said local independent retailers should be given the opportunity to take over the prime retail spots with funding help.

“It’s time for a major rethink for Aberystwyth’s Great Darkgate Street,” Ms Jones said.

“The multiple larger retailers are turning their back on our town centre and now we need to refocus these large premises in order to make them more attractive and accessible to independent, local businesses.”

She added that with no rates this financial year, now is a great opportunity to support small local businesses to reclaim their place on Great Darkgate Street. “It is the town’s largest street and needs to be a star attraction in Ceredigion,” she said.

* See Cambrian News comment, click here