Portchester high street will be 'a ghost town' within a year, traders warn

Market traders in Portchester’s West Street precinct have hit out at successive governments and the council for allowing out-of-town retail parks to draw customers away from the traditional high street.

It comes as the precinct has been hit by a series of closure announcements since October, with branches of Co-op, McColl’s, and Lloyds all due to shut this year.

The closures will leave the precinct without a cash machine or a post office.

Businesses used to do ‘a roaring trade’ along West Street, according to Maurice Twells who has owned Twells Traditional Butchers on the high street for more than 20 years, but now customers are visiting supermarkets like Lidl on the Castle Trading Estate, off Southampton Road.

The 67-year-old said: ‘When the bank goes, it will be the finish of the precinct – it will be a ghost town, a dead precinct.

‘Within a year the market could go.

‘I blame the council for allowing Lidl and out-of-town shopping in the area.’

Mike Jones, who has run a sock and underwear stall at the Portchester Outdoor Market for more than 30 years, agreed the high street has suffered because of large supermarkets opening.

The 55-year-old said: ‘Government and the council could have said no to out-of-town shopping. Why didn’t they?’

Dave Harwood, who has been coming to the market with his flower stall since the 1990s, agreed there had been a decline since the new Lidl store opened.

He said: ‘I have seen a decline over the years – but it’s definitely got worse in the last couple of years.’

The Lidl store, which opened in 2016, initially faced objections from Fareham Borough Council, which was concerned that its opening would take shoppers from the main shopping precinct.

But the supermarket wrote to thousands of residents to muster support, with a petition in support of the store gathering more than 4,300 signatures.

Now, Fareham MP Suella Braverman has written to the CEOs of both Co-op and Lloyds, asking them to think again about moving out of the precinct.

Ms Braverman said: ‘There are many elderly people in Portchester who rely on the bank to get their money each week.

‘For these people, following the closure, the nearest ATM would be in Fareham or Cosham which are simply inaccessible for elderly people who struggle to drive.

‘Similarly, it is unfair to assume that these people would be comfortable with switching to an online banking arrangement, which can be very confusing and undesirable for the older generation.’