Shopkeepers hope by joining together they can come up with ideas to bring shoppers back to Gosport High Street.
The initiative comes after a spate of shop closures this year. The street has also being blighted by petty crime and drunken incident
s.
Shaun Farrell, a business broker for the Impact scheme, which was set up to help trade in the area, came up with the idea after talking to shopkeepers.
Over the past two months he has been meeting with traders, many of whom expressed concern at the demise of Gosport High Street.
They hope to be as successful as shopkeepers in Southsea whose Love Albert Road days have been a big hit.
Mr Farrell said: 'This is about trying to look at the future of the High Street and look at ideas for making it a thriving place again.
'There are a number of problems and we want to speak to traders to see what they think are the biggest issue so we can take action.
'I think there are issues around trade and crime and we can look at ways to sort them out.
'Tradewise, we need to look at ways to attract businesses to the area and we will be talking with shopkeepers about what they think needs to be done.
'We won't be able to just wave a magic wand and sort out the problem, but we will see what we can do as a collective group and a lot of traders seem very interested.'
A meeting will take place next month to discuss the forming of a retailers' association.
It will take place at the Discovery Centre in Gosport High Street on September 6 at 6pm, with light refreshments available from 5.45pm.
For more information call Mr Farrell on 01329 848601.
The full article contains 318 words and appears in The News newspaper.
