Future's bright for high street shops; CAMPAIGN: Students to help in sprucing up stores left empty by recession.

Byline: By Neil Elkes

SHOPS in Birminghamleftempty and derelict by the recession are to be spruced up with student artwork.

Birmingham City Council has asked art students from Matthew Boulton College to come up with eye-catching designs to hide the gloomy spectre of empty shelves and whitewashed windows.

The new window dressing will be introduced in city council-owned shopping parades but could be extended to private malls, if landowners agree.

It comes a week after the Local Government Association called on the Government to allow councils to take over shops once they have been empty for three months, and turn them into community drop-in centres, art galleries or youth clubs.

Other suggestions included converting many of the former Woolworths stores into short-term market halls for local traders.

And while these ideas are waiting to get off the ground, Birmingham City Council's regeneration chief, Coun Neville Summerfield, is spearheading the use of student artwork on empty shops.

He said: "We have a number of schemes in place looking at how we can dress shops that become empty in the city so they do not cause an eyesore for fellow traders.

"In particular we are working with Matthew Boulton College on a competition challenging students to design eye-catching images depicting Birmingham's vitality and diversity.

The winning entries will then get produced and be available at a relatively low cost to use on both council properties and others where we can come to an agreement with the commercial landlord.

"We believe such moves are crucial to maintaining the vibrancy of our shopping centres, and would warmly welcome any moves by Government which were designed to help us achieve this." Council officials are in talks with owners of shopping centres such as the Pallasades to see if they want to come on board.

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CAPTION(S):

Kings Heath High Street has many disused shop units.