Caerphilly town is to lose two major high street names by the end of this month when Mothercare and Birthdays close.
Baby shop Mothercare will close on October 24, while greetings card chain Birthdays with close its doors on October 31.
A spokeswoman for Mothercare said: “We can confirm that the Mothercare Caerphilly store will close on Monday October 24. The closure of this store is in line with our current portfolio plan.
“We hope this has not upset any customers and that they will continue to shop at The Mothercare Cardiff store.
“There are nine members of staff currently working at the Caerphilly store. All staff have been offered positions at our Mothercare store in Cardiff and two have already accepted.”
Staff at Birthdays are set to lose their jobs, although the company refused to give any frther information and comment on the closure.
John Couzens, manager of Castle Court Shopping Centre, said he could not comment directly on the closure of the two stores but added the units should may not remain vacant for long.
He said: “I know there are lots of activity and interest in the units but I can’t comment on them individually.
“Throughout the recession we have had comings and goings, but because of the strength of Caerphilly and the terrific footfall we get, 100,000 a week, all of our shops have remained fully occupied.”
John Couzens, the manager of the shopping mall in the town is rightly proud of the numbers of people who visit his centre each week, this stands at a respectable 100,000 people according to his footfall records.
The Caerphilly County borough council records of weekly footfall for all the area, not fifty metres, from John`s shopping centre, i.e. the top of town, is a regular average of about 40,000 to 43,000 people per week, I would like to ask if anyone knows where the 57,000 people who come to the town, and visit the castle shopping centre, actually disappear to between there and top of town?
A good point is made by Mr. Bond, people shop at the North end of town but not at the South end. I attended a meeting, held at the 'Irish Tymes', early this year where local politicians revealed their ideas for growth in this area.
That was six months ago and there has been no improvement in the situation, bar for the initiative by J D Wetherspoon. It is a great pity that the town, after which the county borough is named, appears to be in very poor shape. Let us all hope that this is not the terminal decline of a market town that once was a serious rival to Cardiff.