ONGAR: MP backs call to save town's shops (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

ONGAR: MP backs call to save town's shops

10:55am Thursday 8th May 2008 in

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A RALLYING call to save a town's struggling shops has been sent out to the community.

Several small outlets in Ongar have been forced to close due to mounting financial pressures in recent years, and now Brentwood and Ongar MP Eric Pickles is backing a campaign to breath new life back into local retail.

He said: "Often it's independent shops that are the heart of a community, and I'm particularly concerned for the future of the remaining shops that exist in the village."

Mr Pickles is backing the Federation of Small Businesses' (FSB) Keep Trade Local Campaign, which is calling on more people to shop at independent local outlets.

"When it comes to local shops it's a case of use them or lose them," said Mr Pickles. "There are a number of good independent shops in Ongar and they're at the heart of the community. If they go then all you are left with is a collection of houses."

Ongar Town Forum chairman Ian Goodman - landlord of the Cock Tavern pub in the High Street - has also backed the campaign, said: "I look up and down the town everyday and it's never busy anymore. I think it has been a slow decline but I ve noticed it more over the last few months.

"I would imagine quite a lot of businesses are just existing at the moment - but there's only so long people are going to carry on."

The concerns are echoed by FSB member Tina Delieu, a married-mum-of-two, of Glebe Road,. in Ongar, who has lived in the town for 30 years.

She said: "Quite a few shops now sit empty here, and it has has meant the area is not as vibrant as it once was. It's a terrible waste in a place as lovely as Ongar and I hope things start picking up."

More information on the campaign visit www.fsb.org.uk/essex.