Seven empty shops on the lower end of Harbour Street will be let rent-free for six months from January, under a scheme the council hopes will fill the gaps that have opened since the bank and two charity shops closed. The council owns four of the units. The other three belong to a pension fund, which has agreed to take…

The Saturday market on Exchange Square will also open on Thursday evenings from November to February, with lights and hot food. Thirty of its fifty traders have signed up.

Five years ago, a loaf of sourdough in Port Avery meant a trip to the market on a Saturday. Today it sits on the counter of forty corner shops, next to the milk. The change was not planned by anyone. It began when the three small bakeries on the east side, each too small to run its own van, agreed…