An Angus businessman claims Arbroath election candidates have failed to take an interest in the plight of local stores.
Chic Grant, who owns the town’s Outdoor Action Scotland, said just one prospective councillor had visited his shop ahead of polling on Thursday.
He claimed that, over the years, candidates had consistently shown a lack of interest in local business when hitting the campaign trail in the town.
”I have only seen one of the candidates so far and it is very rare I see anybody coming around the shops at election time. When you think about it a lot of the people who own or work in shops are going to be voting in Arbroath.
”Our businesses are the driving force of the town. I don’t mind people talking Arbroath up, but we don’t seem to see any interaction from them. If the candidates came to speak to us we would tell them our concerns.”
Outdoor Action is based on Arbroath High Street and supplies outdoor clothing, tents and equipment.
Mr Grant said commercial rents in Arbroath are a ”killer” and appealed to the town’s candidates to give assurances that moves will be made to secure reductions, should they be voted in.
”They all promise help and support to businesses,” he said. ”It all sounds good, but they should be talking to business people in the town.”
Pat Millar, of the Arbroath Town Centre Regeneration Group, said the councillors involved in the forum had always given full backing to the efforts to improve the High Street.
”I have to say that there are a number of councillors with the town regeneration group that come from all parties and they have always been very supportive of the aims of the group.
”I don’t know what they have been doing during the run-up to election time, but in my experience they have always been very keen and expressed an interest in the work of the group.”
The Tayside Valuation Joint Board has an assessor who is responsible for the valuation of non-domestic premises for rating and the valuation and banding of domestic properties for council tax.
Mrs Millar said the issue of soaring business rates could not always be easily tackled by a local councillor, as Angus Council does not have the power to set fees independently.
She added: ”If we, the people, want business in this town to survive we have to patronise them. It is no use going to out-of-town shops we have to shop locally whenever possible.
”We should be talking up our town and encouraging people and businesses to come into our High Street.”
Chairman of Arbroath Community Council Mike Cosans said most of the town’s candidates had pledged to tackle the High Street in their election literature.
”Most of them have said they want to revitalise the High Street but if they have not been down to see the tenants then they won’t go far,” he said.
”Although Angus Council don’t control who sets the business rates, there is nothing to stop the local authority subsidising the rates and I would like to see whoever gets in looking into some kind of scheme along those lines.”
A report by Mackay Consultants earlier this year predicted that Angus will have one of the weakest economic growth rates in Scotland over the next three years.
The study ranked the county’s growth prospects as 28th out of Scotland’s 32 local authorities and anticipated that Scotland’s overall GDP will rise by 4.8% over the next three years.
Perth and Kinross ranked 14th in the list with 4.9%, Dundee and Fife were both expected to achieve 4.8% growth, while rises in Angus were predicted at just 4.3%.