A broken high street and its billionaire owners
The whole town centre of Newton Aycliffe in County Durham is owned by billionaire brothers – so why is it so run down? Josh Halliday reportsThe Guardian’s northern editor, Josh Halliday, recently went to Newton Aycliffe, a town in County Durham, to talk to residents about their high street. They hated it, they told him: there were too many boarded-up shops, the banks had closed and the whole place looked miserable. And yet, Josh discovered, the high street – and the whole of the town centre – was owned by billionaires.Newton Aycliffe was a new town and when it was built, the high street was supposed to be the jewel in the crown. Today, Josh tells Helen Pidd, “it feels a bit like a ghost town. When I was doing the reporting for this story I was counting the shops: how many there were, which ones were vacant. A teacher spotted my notebook and he just said to me, ‘it’s disgusting, isn’t it?’” Continue reading...
The whole town centre of Newton Aycliffe in County Durham is owned by billionaire brothers – so why is it so run down? Josh Halliday reports
The Guardian’s northern editor, Josh Halliday, recently went to Newton Aycliffe, a town in County Durham, to talk to residents about their high street. They hated it, they told him: there were too many boarded-up shops, the banks had closed and the whole place looked miserable. And yet, Josh discovered, the high street – and the whole of the town centre – was owned by billionaires.
Newton Aycliffe was a new town and when it was built, the high street was supposed to be the jewel in the crown. Today, Josh tells Helen Pidd, “it feels a bit like a ghost town. When I was doing the reporting for this story I was counting the shops: how many there were, which ones were vacant. A teacher spotted my notebook and he just said to me, ‘it’s disgusting, isn’t it?’” Continue reading...
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