By James Arnold BBC News Online business reporter

Visit pretty much any provincial English town, and you can meet people like Lee and Simon.

Bedford is an affluent place, but we have trouble retaining that affluence Mo Aswat Town centre manager

Perched on benches in Harpur Square, a windswept plaza in the centre of Bedford, the teenagers are happy to heap abuse on their home town.

"Bedford's mingin'," snarls Lee. "It's boring, the shops are rubbish and there's nothing to do."

Mingin' or otherwise, it's hard to find anyone who has a good word to say about Britain's benighted town centres - leading to a drift away from the High Street and towards the ring-road mall.

But now the High Street may be fighting back.

Shutting up shop

These are dark days for the market town.

Shoppers' preference for the bright lights of Tesco or Toys'R'Us has, it is said, come close to eradicating the traditional neighbourhood retailer.

According to a report* published in December by the New Economics Foundation, the number of local shops - corner shops, grocers, post offices and pubs - fell by almost one-fifth during the second half of the 1990s.

Over the next five years, the report's authors predict another cull on a similar scale.

And in case you thought this was a worry only for the small shopkeepers themselves, the Foundation argues that the decline could cause unemployment, malnutrition, crime and economic catastrophe.

Dirty old town

At first glance Bedford, an ancient town of 140,000 souls, braced between East Anglia, the Midlands and the Home Counties, is suffering no such apocalypse.

Shop occupancy is high - only 5% of retail space stands empty, half the national average.

But the town has a forlorn air, the result of the wave of charity shops and downmarket budget retailers that has swept away most independent stores.

The High Street, once the town's retail heart, is now a car-choked rat-run, lined by rowdy pubs.

"They attract a very nasty element," sniffs one shopper.

Nasty neighbours

Like most market towns, Bedford has felt the centrifugal pull of out-of-town superstores.

This town's major industry is apathy Frank Branston Mayor

But it also comes under intense competition from the vast amount of superior shopping opportunities within an hour's radius - everything from north London's megastores to the car-friendly retail parks of Peterborough.

Most pressing are the threats from Cambridge, the region's leading cultural centre, and Milton Keynes, a soulless but efficient shoppers' paradise - both less than half an hour away.

"Bedford is an affluent place, but we have trouble retaining that affluence within Bedford," says Mo Aswat, the indefatigable town centre manager.

"The result is that Bedford looks like a poorer town than it really is."

Could do better

Certainly, local discontent is running high.

"When I think of what this town was like a decade ago, it looks pretty pitiful now," fumes Eleanor Robson, a long-term Bedford resident.

Things you may not know about Bedford

It was the birthplace of John Bunyan, 17th century author and clergyman... ... as well as comedian Ronnie Barker It is the second-oldest borough in the country - its charter dates from 1166 Home to 57 distinct ethnic groups, it claims to be the most diverse borough in the country It was home to many Italian immigrants, drawn to the town by the brickworks in the early 20th century

"They need to get rid of all these cut-price shops - they make the place look miserable."

"This town has no food shopping in the centre," says Vic Warner of Goldings hardware shop, one of the few independent retailers to have stuck it out on the High Street.

"A decent supermarket in town would draw people in, and that would benefit all the retailers."

Other retailers argue that parking - currently both expensive and scarce - should be improved, and that the authorities should tackle petty crime.

Apathy abandoned

For years, the local council - locked in legislative paralysis - did little.

Mr Warner is hanging on in the High Street

"This town's major industry is apathy," snorts Frank Branston, a former local newspaper editor who was elected mayor late last year.

"Milton Keynes has been growing steadily for the past 30 years and nothing was done. Now, Milton Keynes is out of sight in terms of competition."

However, under the guidance of Bedford's new town centre management company, things are starting to happen.

Building ambitions

Mo Aswat is now energetically pushing a raft of projects.

Lure them in, and they will shop, Bedford hopes

There are plans to pedestrianise the High Street as a venue for markets and develop the town's pretty, but commercially neglected, riverfront.

A large area of near-empty land near the castle is earmarked for a proposed national food museum, and the shabby bus station could be used for Bedford's first new retail development in decades.

Money is being ploughed into making the town centre safer, and precious small retailers are being more earnestly courted.

Something to do

Most importantly, the town is hugely expanding its so-far thin opportunities for recreation, including an events on the river festival and a summer beach festival.

Proposed BID schemes

Bedford Birmingham Blackpool Brandon Bristol Bromley Coventry Ealing Greenwich Hammersmith and Fulham Hull Keswick Lincoln Liverpool Manchester London West End Newquay Peterborough Plymouth Reading Swansea Warwickshire

"If we can give people a reason to come into Bedford over and above shopping, the rest should take care of itself," says Mr Aswat.

Last week, Bedford learned that it was among 22 areas to pilot the government's new Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).

A notion borrowed from the US, BIDs makes businesses club together to vote on and finance a five-year development plan.

Unlike established schemes, the BIDs will include all businesses within their catchment and be funded by an obligatory levy on the rates.

Mixed signals

Whether any of this recent activity will pay off is a matter for debate.

Roy Douglas, of chartered surveyors Douglas Duff, points out that the swankier retailers are unlikely to consider Bedford - despite the fact that retail rents are one-third of Milton Keynes levels - until per capita spending increases.

"And that's basic economics - there's nothing much the council can do about that."

But there are signs of hope.

Debenhams, BHS and Marks & Spencer, the town's three main retailers, recently announced �8m in new investments.

Other new shops, including modestly smart names such as Monsoon, have dipped their toe into the market.

And for the first time in a while, shopper numbers - "footfall", in retail parlance - in the centre actually increased last year.

Vitality vital

Is Bedford typical?

Up to a point.

Other market towns may lack Bedford's prosperous hinterland - but few also have to compete with so many muscular neighbours.

Unlike many other ailing boroughs, moreover, Bedford seems to be coming to grips with the issues underpinning retail drift.

Without some fresh ideas and a dose of panache, the High Street will remain the road to nowhere.

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* Ghost Town Britain: The Threat from Economic Globalisation to Livelihoods, Liberty and Local Economic Freedom, New Economics Foundation, December 2002.

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Are British towns really as grim as all that?

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