Leader: The picture is mixed on High Streets

Mary Portas says many High Streets are dying. She might be pleasantly surprised if she came to Shropshire.

Good occupancy rates, thriving streets, maybe even some market stalls . . .

Then again, she might find evidence to support her contention. Empty stores, boarded up stores, For Sale signs . . .

It is the most mixed of pictures, and within Shropshire there are some towns, like Bridgnorth, where the traditional High Street scene seems secure, and others where the pressure is clearly telling.

Decline comes by a succession of little defeats. In Oakengates, the family store of Owen's has had to close its doors after over 140 years. Fred Roberts in Cross Street, Ellesmere, has been another to call it a day, after nearly 140 years.

They are representative of the smaller independent retailers which give the special character to towns and the shopping experience they offer.

The planning template now seems to be of the "give them a supermarket" variety. Madeley got one. Dawley is to get one. Hadley is to get a Tesco Express. There are contentious supermarket plans on the table in Newport. A new Sainsbury's in Whitchurch is coming with the sweetener of the firm giving almost £500,000 towards town improvements.

It is like a tidal wave and yet the smaller traders are somehow having to compete. Commercially, it is always going to be tough. Nevertheless, town centre traders in Shrewsbury who sell the things that you cannot get in supermarkets are holding their own.

But with supermarkets selling an ever widening range, the niche markets are shrinking.

The key perhaps is to see things not just as a commercial fight, and to work to make town centres attractive destinations in themselves, where there are things to do and see, and they are pleasant places just to hang around.

The fear of repossession:

Out on those High Streets, and in those supermarkets and out-of-town shopping centres, there is a veneer of normality.

Recession? What recession?

Behind the facade is another story. According to the homeless charity, Shelter, the Telford & Wrekin area is one of the worst places in the West Midlands for home repossessions, with 625 in the borough between October 2010 and September this year.

As repossession is generally a last resort, it is an indication of just how bad things are.

It is all very well talking about the need to build houses and expand the number of affordable homes to help people onto the housing ladder, but the cruel truth is that home ownership is demonstrably beyond the means of many people.

And what has happened to those who have lost their homes? They have become invisibles within the system, who will perhaps reappear at some stage in some other set of statistics.

For every person to have lost their home, there will be others who live in fear of it happening.

Those who have no worries about their jobs or finances this Christmas can count themselves very lucky.