Wales' longest high street has struggled in recent years. Bangor high street was bustling with shops 20 years ago, as people flocked to the city centre to fulfil their needs.
But since then, one-by-one a number of retailers have gone, with shops left empty for long periods. Woolworths set the dominoes falling, with big brands like Debenhams, H&M and WHSmiths following.
Many smaller independent businesses also disappeared, leaving empty stores littering the high street. Bangor now finds itself riding choppy waves, as those who have long survived its challenging straits meet those now joining them in the hope of a brighter future.
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The discovery of several industrial scale cannabis factories in recent months has increased concern and stress for shop owners. But there has also been positive news, with a developer snapping up the empty Menai Centre at the heart of the city.
Ideas about what is best for the future of the high street is however, mixed. While its length is its claim to fame, it can leave Bangor feeling like it has several smaller stretches of shops, rather than one unified area.
Rob Lloyd, CEO of Bearmont Capital, recently snapped up the dormant Menai Centre with big plans to rejuvenate the building and the city centre. Speaking about what he believes Bangor needs to bring it back from its challenging years, he said: "The lack of footfall is really the key factor we need to address.
"Currently what we're looking at with the (Menai) centre is 80,000 square foot of space to fill, the kind of space you just wouldn't build in this economic climate. What we've got to do is reposition it, move it away from how these kind of locations were built around a department store, such as Debenhams, and look at new uses and how it can be a footfall driver.
"We've had some great discussions with the local authorities, and they've got some really good plans to drive footfall not just to the centre of the high street, but to all of it, which is what's important, but these things do take time. For us it has been a case of spending money like it's going out of fashion, because you've got to be willing to put capital into projects like this or nothing is going to change, the shops will remain vacant.
"Everything we do to the property is designed to entice new tenants into the building, so far it has predominately been landlords work, restructuring the centre to make setting up here desirable." Even just a few weeks after buying the property, one business has already been confirmed to be moving into the centre.
The Original Factory Shop is taking the former Select unit, and Rob confirmed that several of the other units had now gone under offer. He said: "What we've got to do is get in businesses that will help to drive footfall in the city centre, this will in turn spin off to help these other retailers and businesses in the rest of the city.
"We also want to get a real feel-good factor for the city, to get people talking about it, that's important to us." While Rob is pushing ahead with bringing something new to the city, several others businesses have been struggling on, doing what they can and what they believe is right for rejuvenation of the high street.
Jo Pott, who owns three businesses towards the Pendref end of Bangor high street and has worked in the city for more than 30 years, recently posted on her Kyffin Instagram pages expressing concerns over the challenges her end of the high street has continued to face. The post went up after the clearance of a recently discovered cannabis factory forced the police to effectively close down the end of the high street while the building was cleared out.
She also mentioned the effects on that end of the high street after it was effectively cut off for 18 months after a fire that destroyed Noodle One and Morgan's clothes shop, with building work also said to be causing problems. Around 70 businesses, largely appointment based, operate away from the centre of the high-street from the cut-off around the cathedral.
Speaking about how business has been affected on that end of the high-street, Jo said: "We've got a good mixed economy down this end of the high street, with many of the businesses having longevity on their side too, we've all been here a long time. We're of coursed concerned about not being part of the high street anywhere, even when it is the centre of Bangor High Street that has failed, while we have battled on through thick and thin.
"Yet we get no support whatsoever in terms, such as, the Christmas lights where we didn't see a single lightbulb down this end, while everything was focused in the pedestrian area where there are no shops. Now, after all the challenges of the last few years, we have people coming up from the cathedral, seeing the Adra building site shuttering and thinking there's no shops down here, they've all been hidden.
"Then with the recent closure of this end thanks to the cannabis farm, we had people being forced to make miles long detours to reach us. Everything that happens to this end of the high street feels like it is just one more thing, like someone is having a joke at our expense."
Jo would like to see more done to include the Pendref end of the street, adding: "Bangor having the longest high street is something that should be celebrated. Everyone, no matter what part of the high street they are part of, should be included."
Continuing to promote Bangor has long been part of Jo's goals, most recently commissioning an image of Garth Pier to "remind people how beautiful Bangor is". Another business that was quite badly affected by the recent road closure was Wood Fired Shack run by Avia Amos and partner Paul Cassar, who have already seen off several challenging years since opening on the high street in 2019.
Speaking about the effects of the road closure, Avia said: "It was a big hit for us, not only was the road shut off, we lost Deliveroo for the whole evening. There was the effect brought on by the smell, which was atrocious, we're a venue lots of families come to and nobody wants to spend their Friday evening having pizza with their kids and watching bags of weed be carried by.
"Not to mention it was attracting a lot of undesirable attention, which is an issue we are struggling with in our current location already." Due to its location the restaurant often struggles with anti-social behaviour on the wall next to cathedral, which Avia explained is exacerbated on evenings and weekends causing them to call the police three to four times a week.
What do you think needs to be done to help Bangor high street? Let us know in the comments.
Avia added: "Ultimately this is just a symptom of the bigger problem and that is the amount of empty shops on the high street. This has led to massive decrease in footfall because nobody has got any reason to come to the high street, so it is no coincidence that this is the third cannabis farm that has been found in the recent year, which I'd say is unusual for a high street.
"It feels like many of the buildings that are empty are just being left to rot." Avia also raised the issues brought on by the cost of living crisis, with rising supplier costs and energy bills.
She added: "We're also having to pay Business Rates, which for a high street in the state it is in, doesn't seem like a very good use of money. Something needs to be done for the high street, and it needs to be done soon, before businesses become unable to cope."
Another key issue she raised has been a frequent talking point for the businesses of the high street - parking - which many believe there is not enough of, and more importantly not enough free parking. Dale Hibbert runs the café Domu alongside his wife.
They were lucky enough to avoid the recent closure of the high street thanks to being on holiday, but Dale shares similar concerns for the state of the high street. Speaking about the idea of zones being added to the high street, concentrating on a specific style of retails he said: "It would be a great idea, to be able to split everyone up into quarters, say have an artisan quarter, a food quarter, similar to how you might in Liverpool One, it makes sense to group everyone all together.
"But it requires everyone to be in the same area, and everyone is spread out, that's the problem. The development of this style though would encourage people to come into those zones, and at the end of the day you've got to start somewhere.
"There could be options for the council to put money into helping people relocate to create spots like this. The recent takeover of the Menai Centre is a positive note, you can count on the fact that when someone with money takes over a location like that they're doing it to make money and that'll be a positive for the high street.
"That said, I wouldn't like to start on a high street like this right now." Dale noted that personally he's not too worried about the trying times, Domu remains popular with many of the university's students and those looking for specifically vegetarian and vegan meals.
He is, however, concerned for the future of the high street as a whole, adding: "It is challenging on the high street, footfall is down significantly and even though we choose to close at 4pm these days, we're here, we're part of the city and we've invested a lot, we're not planning to go anywhere."
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