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Back to my original post.......I don't disagree that the high street has changed and the butcher/baker/candlestick maker thing is long gone, and yes there is clearly a market for all theses barbers/nail bars etc but only so many can survive and I think saturation point has been reached. Sadly I think the town centre development site will be the same in a couple of years time and eventually will have cheap housing built on and when I say the site will have cheap housing I mean cheap as in cheap and nasty not affordable. One idea would have been to move the library/doctors etc into a nice new modern building which would take a fair chunk of the land as the originals are out of date and as normal every other town has had/getting new except Bedlington. Tesco wanted to build a new shiny store and a handful of shops but were turned down because the old building was marked as listed/important🤣they also refused to spend major amounts fixing/bodging the leaking roofs/decrepit buildings and eventually decided enough was enough and left even though the old shop was making money. Then a few years down the line the entire site is flattened including the all important former COOP building

I had heard that when Tesco pulled out all the small retailers also backed away. Naturally as that's just what I heard I have no idea what went on behind the scenes and at the council meetings. I assume all the minutes from all the meetings involving every stage of the development, that has gone on for years, are available to the general public. Reading the minutes, or attending council meetings, It's not something I have ever thought I could pass a few hours/days of my time doing.

If they had an Ann Summers shop on Front Street then the footfall could be monitored and then we would know who was working from home. This isn't totally accurate but the best I could do - Market Place area & Cramlington Manor Walks and Concordia area (car parking areas outlined in yellow) :-