Councillors are working hard to help Newmarket's suffering High Street.
The town council's planning committee is trying to create a clear vision for Newmarket town centre.
A number of planning proposals have been put forward recently to use empty shops for non-retail services; however, the committee have rejected them on grounds of policy and local opinion.
Some people feel that it is best to have a service provider using the shop space rather than them stand empty but planning officials say it is hard to reclaim a retail space once it has been given permission to be used for something else.
Newmarket's retailers have been working to re-invigorate Newmarket town centre and bring the empty shops into use again. The council's planning committee are aiming to support this. They are striving for a balance between filling some of the shop spaces that have been empty for some time without changing the face of Newmarket for the worse.
