IT is not all bad news for St Helens town centre.

In addition to Costa, a bespoke cake shop (wedding cakes and the like) and a phone repair shop have also opened in the town centre.

In other places such as Earlestown, Newton, others are opening too.

I’m not sure what it is that people actually do want in the town centre, because they don’t say they just criticise.

If they want a Debenhams or John Lewis, it is simply not going to happen.

A Primark store? Well, who knows, maybe?

But as larger retailers look more closely at where the stores will be, then the likelihood is that St Helens will not be on list.

The future high street will be more community focused. Some shops will go back to residential.

The challenge with St Helens is that the build of most of the town centre, prevents this.

However I have seen flats being built very near to centre, and in one of side streets, so maybe we’ll see some more of that. Event spaces also.

I also believe that as the spaces become more community focused night time use increases, people will want to find shops open at times that suit them, not the other way around.

If Ged Gibbons, who has been brought in to head a commission that will report to the council on ways of improving the town centre, only focuses on retail transactions and not community hub he’ll have missed a trick.

Mike Ashworth via sthelensstar.co.uk