THERE is, quite rightly, concern about vacant shops in Bathurst as outlined by the story quoting Stuart Pearson ("Where's a long term plan?", February 25).
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Council has responded by detailing the many events that it sponsors to bring extra visitation and visitor spending to Bathurst.
While this is helpful, I have long believed that there are other practical measures that council could take to address the problem.
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The first would be to undertake a simple survey of vacant premises in the CBD on an annual basis to quantify the problem.
The second is not so simple, but changes in planning should be considered to, over time, reduce the areas of the city that are available to commercial activities so as to concentrate those activities in the CBD.
With the decline in "bricks and mortar" shops, it seems unwise to allow a proliferation of widely dispersed retail and commercial activity.
