A FLOURISHING Meirionnydd town high street is bucking the national trend, a business group has announced.

Gathering dust in a shop storeroom in Bala are a bunch of attractive panels depicting scenes from Bala’s yesteryear.

They were designed and manufactured by Bala Business Group especially to be erected in empty shop windows on the High Street.

However, they have never been used. The reason? There is not a single empty shop on Bala’s High Street.

Opposite to many of the UK’s high streets, Bala’s shop premises are all occupied.

Apart from the ubiquitous banks (two), charity shops (two), small supermarkets (two), there are five pubs, seven café/restaurants and several takeaways.

The White Lion Hotel and Plas yn Dre, have recently had several thousand pounds–worth of refurbishments carried out, and the main road has been upgraded, adding an atmosphere of confidence to the whole town.

Bala has two butcher’s shops and a mix of independent shops.

All statistics point to the reduction of footfall in high streets, with many large stores closing, citing online shopping as being the cause of this.

See this week’s north editions for the full story, in shops and online on Thursday