With promises of new shops, houses and parks, a lot of us are looking forward to the future of Andover’s town centre through the new masterplan.

But before then, there are likely to be many years of upheaval. Many familiar names in the centre, including the Body Shop and Sainsbury’s Bridge Street store are among the current and future closures, with Edinburgh Woollen Mill’s future up in the air.

In light of this, the Advertiser chatted to some of Andover’s business community to see what they think will keep consumers heading to the High Street.

New apartments planned for the centre of town in the masterplan proved particularly popular amongst businesses, with Dave Stanbridge, manager at Tip Top Balloons, saying that having people living in the town centre, as well as a moved Lights theatre, will help bring trade back to the centre of town.

“I’ve always found that the out of town places are stopping people from coming in,” he said. “It’s very difficult to keep going and to compete on costs with them, as they’ve got the buying power we haven’t.”

Florist Janet May said that the planned developments were a “great idea.”

“Anything that’ll improve the town is great,” she said. In particular, she said the new park would be an “easier way for people to get into town,” and make them more likely to use local shops.

“That can’t be a bad thing!” she added.

For Kelly Jones, at Canto Gelato, the key is to making the High Street more than just a shopping destination.

“There’s days where the High Street is heaving,” she said, “and others where it’s dead.”

She said that events, such as live music, helps to bring people in, as well as markets, saying that the recent artisan market had been one of their busiest days in recent memory.

However, she said that the weekly markets could “do with improving.”

“We need more stalls,” she said, “as it was amazing when we were younger when it used to cover the street top to bottom. We need to sure that people don’t just come to town for shopping and banking.”

Steve Godwin, the manager of Andover BID told the Advertiser that while the High Street was currently a changing environment, it “has been so for a long time.”

“Consumer habits have been changing for years,” he said, “and whilst the decline within some national retailers is sad it is inevitable.

“Andover is extremely fortunate though because although we have seen a decline like everywhere with large retailers, we have a healthy number of strong independents (Indies) with more moving into the town or enquiring. Thrift has just opened in The Chantry Centre and the Geek Emporium will open in the next few weeks adding to the 100 plus indies that we already have in the centre.”

He added that the town has a great deal to offer, noting Andover is “safe, easy and convenient” to do business in thanks to pedestrianisation and low car parking rates.