Closing bookshop owner says town is 'dumbing down'

A bookshop owner who is closing over town centre property rents has claimed barbers, nail bars and vape shops are "dumbing down" the area.

Paul Hamer, has run Clitheroe Books on Moor Lane, Clitheroe, for three years, but is abandoning the site halfway through its lease.

He said it was a "massive shame" that the shop would shut at the end of March after he "tried everything" to keep it going.

Mr Hamer said he felt the closure of small businesses was something that was happening all too frequently "as our town centres deteriorate".

"Clitheroe will now have no dedicated bookshop," he said.

"There are a few factors in my decision including rents for shops, which are increasingly too high and a significant part of the problem."

But Mr Hamer told the Local Democracy Reporting Service there was a "fundamental change happening" when you looked at the type of shops opening in the town.

"There are now multiple men's barber shops, vape shops with general stores and nail salons," he said.

"I don't see how those types of shops will attract day-visitors to the town like a bookshop can?

"I think these retail changes are dumbing-down the town centre. People won't travel from miles around if that's all Clitheroe offers."

Mr Hamer said he had customers from Manchester, Lancaster and Bolton and was looking at alternative buildings to rehouse the bookshop, but it was "looking impossible" in Clitheroe because of the "much too high" rents.

It was a "sad day" for the town, he said, adding: "It will end up with no bookshop at all after having three in the past."

He said the past three years had included the legacy of the Covid pandemic and, more recently, town centre road and pavement upgrades.

But Mr Hamer said it was property rents that were a key challenge for small businesses.

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