ALI Tyrer called upon the public to give St Helens Council’s new chief executive chance to implement a new vision for the town centre as the curtain came down on her family’s 128-year-old department store.

Tyrers shut its doors on Saturday on Bridge Street in what is widely considered to be a hammer blow for the town’s retail sector. The closure has led to criticism from Star readers about the direction St Helens is heading in.

Ali, 43, who held the reins for nearly 13 years, believes the town centre is still suffering from a lack of foresight and decisions made a decade ago.

However, she says there has been improvements in the past 18 months and that the St Helens public should give new council CEO Mike Palin, a regeneration expert, a chance to deliver a blueprint for a modernised town centre, as well as recognising the ownership of many retail units by private landlords restricts the influence of the local authority.

Speaking to the Star on Saturday as shoppers gathered to wish her and staff well, she said: “More recently the council has worked with businesses but the damage was done 10 years ago.

“The council has a new chief executive who has some great ideas and needs to be given the chance to carry them out. He recognises what St Helens was and what it is lacking and needs to be able to present a new vision for this town.

“Some people have formed the opinion that the town centre is failing and talk the place down but there has to be more aspiration and a responsible approach to find a way. I hope Tyrers customers will continue to shop in St Helens.”

Ali said the town had badly lacked inward investment since the decline of Pilkington and closure of Beechams, meaning the number of well paid jobs and levels disposable income was reducing spending power.

She said the changes of road networks into St Helens, pedestrianisation of the town centre, and closure of the market on Bridge Street had been decisions made in decades gone by that were mistakes.

The mother-of-three, who after a break from business is expected to return to fashion retail on a small scale, rejected claims by some critics that her store had been a “dinosaur” and said that those who have formed that opinion must not have visited the store to see how it had modernised.

As flowers and cards from customers continued to arrive, Ali added: “It has been really emotional the way staff and customers have been. I was worried about the reaction – but the response from the 'Tyrers community' has been huge."