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 part in return for the council paying the business rates while the trial lasts. Applicants must open at least five days a week and must not be a vape shop, a betting shop or, at the insistence of one councillor, "another place selling candles".

Who has applied

Thirty-eight people had applied by Tuesday. They include a cobbler, a children's bookshop, a bicycle repair co-operative and a woman who wants to open a shop selling only things made in Port Avery. "Which is mostly fish and jam," she said, "but there is more than you think."

The scheme costs the council about £40,000. Similar trials in other towns have kept around half of the businesses open once the rent began.