What can Britain learn from a Breton town’s bustling centre?

The experience of shopping in Dinan is very different from doing the same on one of Britain’s struggling high streets, says James Moore, and that includes those in similarly tourist-friendly places

Bath is a tourist trap, but its city centre has the same problems with vacancies as the rest of Britain

It was only after my family’s day trip to Dinan, a picturesque town in the Breton countryside, had ended that it dawned on me: I’d spent the entire day shopping. And I’d enjoyed it.

I couldn’t tell you the last time that happened.

This led me to ask a question: with the British town centre in crisis – the number of vacant premises at its highest level for more than four years – is there anything we could learn from the place?

You have to be a little bit careful at the outset. We’re talking here about a picturesque and historic walled town in the middle of a region that attracts a large number of visitors.

You’re not going to be able to replicate what it has across Britain.

But here’s the thing: similarly touristy places on this side of the channel are struggling in a way that Dinan at least doesn’t appear to be.

Nationally, the British Retail Consortium puts the vacancy rate at 10.3 per cent. Footfall declined by 1.9 per cent in July.

It isn’t just economically deprived areas that are struggling either. Last year it was reported that there were 42 vacant premises in the picturesque city of Bath, for example. It’s a good deal bigger than Dinan, but is a similar tourist trap thanks to the world-famous Roman baths, which have given the city the status of a Unesco world heritage site and put it high on the itinerary of visitors to the region.

Campaigner Luke John Emmett successfully drew attention to the city centre’s plight with the aid of a camera. He says while landlords have made efforts to make some of the empty premises look less unsightly since then, and new tenants are promised, the problem continues.

As retailers continue to close stores, the issue of empty shopfronts looks set to continue to plague the British high street.

So to Dinan. What made mooching around the place such a pleasure was the sheer variety of what this small town had to offer.

Of course we saw places catering for the tourist euro, but there were also bookshops, a toyshop, bakeries, a place where a bloke was selling lights built out of scrap, an indoor market.

We happened upon a thriving comic shop. Somehow Dinan has become Breton geek central. We even found a steampunk and Harry Potter emporium.

Add in the inevitable profusion of cafes, something France does so very well, and you’ve an enticing mix.

The lack of the chains that have homogenised British shopping centres, and made them boring, was a big plus point for me. It’s not that they aren’t there. There was, of course, a Carrefour convenience outlet, broadly equivalent to Tesco Metro. There was also a bookie, in the form of a PMU bar. But they weren’t dominant features in the same way that they are in Britain.

The retreat of the chains could provide an opportunity for small and more specialist outlets to move in, especially in places like Bath which have a ready supply of visitors.

But, of course, there are high rents to contend with and the running sore of business rates linked to property values that are far higher in town centres than they are on the outskirts where internet retailers like Amazon build their warehouses.

A dismal UK government threatening to crash the economy courtesy of a no-deal Brexit providers a further disincentive. Would you risk setting up a shop in the current climate when you’d be better off selling online from your garage if retail is your thing?

Some imagination is called for, and from local as well as central government. Mr Emmett thinks encouraging pop-up shops could help. That’s an idea that could have legs. A fresh set of shops every week? People might just be moved to take a trip to check out the week’s new arrivals if there were to be a variety of places cycling through.

What Britain’s walking dead town centres are in dire need of is what Dinan obviously has in abundance: life. It would certainly help if the nation could find a government willing and able to breathe it in.