It was as soon as hailed for instance of Britain’s future, however at present Newton Aycliffe is a ‘ghost city of empty retailers, misplaced potential and eerily-quiet streets’
NorthernFella visits empty excessive road in Newton Aycliffe
A city centre owned by a billionaire is now a shadow of its former self, with half the retailers closed down. Within the aftermath of the Second World Warfare, the UK authorities drafted proposals for a collection of latest cities to alleviate a serious housing scarcity. One of many first of those was Aycliffe New City, now generally known as Newton Aycliffe.
Nevertheless it’s now a wasteland. Its excessive road, Beveridge Manner, as soon as dwelling to “massive beasts” of retail reminiscent of Woolworths and British Dwelling Shops, has 45 retailers. Twenty-three of these stand empty – 4 occasions the nationwide common.
“Most of those models are closed. It’s fairly unhappy to see truly,” says YouTuber NorthernFella on a video tour of the city. “The pawnbrokers is open – I do not know what that tells you.”
He provides: “Each place has obtained a vape and I’ve seen some nail bars as effectively. In fact there’s a Greggs – the place would we be with out Greggs?”
However whereas restaurant choices are pretty restricted within the city itself, the individuals of Newton Aycliffe can console themselves with the information that they’re only some miles from the very best fish and chips within the nation.
Simply six miles up the highway, in Darlington, is the award-winning Yarm Street Fish and Chip store. Voted the UK’s greatest fish and chip takeaway in 2025 the Yarm Street chippy is okay instance of a correct unbiased takeaway.
Unbiased retailers are skinny on the bottom in Newton Aycliffe, as they’re in lots of the UK’s small cities.
The entire of Aycliffe’s excessive road is owned by property tycoon Benzion Freshwater. The 77-year-old multi-billionaire’s firm, Daejan Holdings, owns properties on either side of the Atlantic, and the £3.2m funding in Aycliffe represents only a tiny share of its portfolio.
Newton Aycliffe appears to be like in contrast to anyplace else within the county (Picture: YouTube/NorthernFella)
Daejan Holdings was as soon as mentioned to be London’s largest personal industrial landlord, says the Guardian, however the agency is shrouded in secrecy, declining to make any touch upon the state of its properties.
North Durham MP Luke Akehurst is pushing for a change within the legislation which might hand councils further powers over premises left empty for lengthy durations. He says there are too many empty models owned by “absentee landlords with no stake in the neighborhood”.
The city’s iconic ‘knife angel’ (Picture: Getty Photos)
Diane Younger, who often retailers within the space, mentioned the excessive road began turning right into a ghost city with the closure of the native Woolworths in 2009. She defined: “We used to have a weekly market – the city centre was heaving on Tuesdays, market day. You couldn’t transfer for individuals. It’s massively gone downhill.”
Native Janet Mills mentioned the center had been sucked out of the city. She explainede: “To get something respectable it’s important to go to a retail park and in case you don’t have a automotive you’re executed for. I simply hate this city centre – it’s completely ineffective.”
Newton Aycliffe was based in 1947 (Picture: YouTube/NorthernFella) The day’s largest headlines in UK and World information Subscribe Invalid e-mail
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The decline of the Nice British Excessive Road is just not solely disappointing for customers, says the federal government’s safety minister Dan Jarvis, it’s additionally launched a worrying new development in crime.
He warned that short-term leases of retail premises had been getting used as fronts for cash laundering, and worse. He mentioned: “Criminals are utilizing these dodgy retailers as fronts for critical organised crime, cash laundering and unlawful working, risking the way forward for the British excessive road.”
Reform boss Nigel Farage has additionally spoken in regards to the “absolute racket” of cash-only companies that appear to have few, if any clients however nonetheless in some way handle to have “a Lamborghini out the again.”
Few unbiased retailers stay within the excessive road (Picture: YouTube/NorthernFella)
Late final 12 months, the Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) launched Operation Machinize 2, to crack down on these shady companies. Rachael Herbert, Director of the Nationwide Financial Crime Centre on the NCA, mentioned: “Operation Machinize targets companies on our excessive road which might be getting used as cowl for a variety of criminality, making our communities much less secure and fewer affluent.
“A whole lot of 1000’s of dangerous and unlawful merchandise have been taken off our streets, and over £10m in money, frozen in financial institution accounts and legal property seized. Depriving criminals of their supply of earnings has an actual impression, limiting the quantity of funds they’ll reinvest in additional offending and deterring them from taking areas on our excessive road that might be utilized by reputable companies.”
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