A wider range of stores is needed for a West Lothian shopping centre to continue to thrive, councillors have warned.
Bathgate’s shopping centre has emerged relatively unscathed from the worst of the Pandemic lockdown which threatened so many businesses with failure and the town has one of best occupancy rates in years.
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But it needs a wider range of stores to survive, councillors claimed this week.
Town Centre manager Nairn Pearson told the local area committee that the occupancy rate for the last quarter was 92.5%, with a vacancy rate of only 7.5%.
Pre-pandemic the vacancy rate was 9% - in 2019.
Despite the success however, councillors are concerned that the town may lose what vibrancy it has retained if all shops that open up are the same- whether it is beauty parlours or fast food outlets.
Councillor Willie Boyle said: “My big concern is the mix of business to keep that vitality in the town centre.
"I think we need to look at trying to get a break down. We need to understand where there's a chance to increase diversity."
He added: “Maybe we need to take this to a planning level to try to control the spread of fast food shops for example, though I’m not just picking on fast food."
He said he had seen an application to convert a fish shop to a fast food outlet but had not called it in for discussion by the development management committee.
He added: "I didn't see any justification other than ‘not another fast food shop’, but surely this is something we can look at . It’s the loss of diversity.”
Councillor Boyle said he would be happy to see a higher vacancy rate if it meant waiting for a greater mix of shops.
Chairing the meeting councillor Harry Cartrmill said: “ I agree with everything Willie has said, but how do we legislate for this?
“We are never going to get back to the heyday of the 70s and 80s in terms of provision but it would be great to take a step in the right direction. If we had an over-provision policy for example.
Mr Pearson said the council had around 270 units in the town centre and he was happy to have a look at the range of shops to give the committee an idea of the diversity of businesses.
“I can understand the comment in terms of diversification of uses. It’s a common comment that comes forward. We have to work with the planning legislation, but I’m happy to feed that back to planning colleagues," Mr Pearson added.
Donald Stavert of the community council said he "agreed wholeheartedly" with councillor Boyle.
“People are looking for a wider range of services from their town centre and I really do fear for the town centre if it doesn’t become a more varied place for services.” he said.
