Chain store plan boosts hopes of recovery for town centre

Boyes, which has 37 branches mostly in the North of England, is moving into the former Sunwin House in King Street. The store is being refurbished and will open for business at the end of August.

Retail operations director Ernie Gee said: "We have been looking at Brighouse for many years and we feel the customers will appreciate good value and good service.

"We will be trading on two floors and feel Brighouse will be an ideal location. It will be a lovely shop and we hope customers will use it every day."

Boyes has been trading since 1881 when it opened its first shop in Scarborough. The company prides itself on offering good value and welcomes 250,000 customers through its doors every week.

The group has stores in North Yorkshire, the North East, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire which concentrate on selling household and gardening items, clothing and electrical equipment.

The Co-op moved out of Sunwin House in 2005. Part of the building is now occupied by clothing outlet Bon Marche and by Peacock's.

Regeneration group United Brighouse's chairman, Ken Langford, welcomed the news saying: "Traders were saying that footfall seems to have increased quite significantly and you can see that with your own eyes. Whatever has brought this about, it is good news for everybody."

Coun Colin Stout (Ind, Brighouse) said: "When you think about the state of the economy at the moment, it is really good for the town that we are introducing new businesses.

"At Christmas, when United Brighouse did its survey, there were 22 empty shops – now nearly half have been sold.

"If we keep introducing footfall into the town centre, other traders may feel it's time to come back."

He said he also wanted to encourage people to shop at Brighouse market on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

"If we could only get landlords to realise there is a recession at the moment and take a smaller rent – rather than no rent at all from empty shops – it would help get new businesses in."