TAVISTOCK and District Chamber of Commerce is looking to launch a campaign to make the town’s empty shops and store fronts look more attractive.

Like many towns across the country, Tavistock has seen an increase in the number of shops standing vacant in its high street and retail areas in recent years. At least 13 business units in the town centre stand vacant, with another notable business on the high street currently holding a closing down sale. Two other prominent properties, the old rest room and the Tavy Club, also stand empty.

A recent report from the Local Data Company said that UK wide, the overall rate of vacant units has increased for the first time in five years by 0.2%, settling at 11.2%. The report states that UK high streets are said to be performing comparatively well at reducing the number of persistently vacant shops in comparison to recent years.

This is said to be evidence of the effective increasing measures that landlords, councils and business communities are taking to reduce vacancy rates across their towns by either changing the use of properties or creating innovative schemes to fill them.

The chamber of commerce is suggesting purchasing vinyl window films to place inside the empty properties of the town centre in an effort to make the heart of Tavistock more attractive to visitors and residents alike.

The vinyl films, which would be bespoke for each specific empty property, would be adorned with an attractive image, be it a landscape photograph of Dartmoor, a painting by a local artist or a mural designed by local school children.

The project is the brainchild of Tim Randell, the chamber of commerce’s chairman. He said: ‘The chamber in the past has tried to campaign to fill the empty shops in our town centre. Sadly we have no power to do that, it is market forces that control whether a shop is empty, high rents, that sort of thing.

‘What we need is a drive to not let them be left in the state they are in at the moment. The chamber intends to write to Tavistock Town Council, to West Devon Borough Council and Tavistock BID for funding, and we will try to drive it commercially if necessary, maybe try and get sponsorship for a window film from local businesses.

‘We could have individual windows sponsored, with part of the vinyl saying “sponsored by” whichever company. For businesses perhaps on the edge of town, the cost of having this sort of positive PR advertising in the centre of the town might be something they consider.

‘Hopefully this campaign would make the shops look more let-able and make the town look prettier. We need to assess the costs and get it liveried up.

‘This is the only way that we feel we can make a difference with this issue and make these empty shops look better.’

Assuming the project can be funded, local schools and organisations will be contacted to see whether they would like to create artwork for the banners.

New Tavistock BID manager Janna Sanders said empty shops in town was an issue that was discussed at the last BID meeting and members would be delighted to work with the chamber of commerce to find a solution.

‘Compared with the national average I don’t think Tavistock is in bad shape and it appears to have quite a high turnover of shops so they get filled quite quickly,’ she said. ‘However, empty shops is something on BID’s radar and certainly beautifying the windows is a good temporary solution.’