AS we head towards the end of the second decade of this century, our relationship with the towns in which we live is reaching a real tipping point.

In recent weeks, retail giant Toys R Us has effectively disappeared from our high streets, electronics giant Maplin is closing swathes of stores following the announcement it was going into liquidation, Carpetright has gone into a company voluntary arrangement (a form of insolvency), and Debenhams and Marks and Spencer are facing their own financial pressures, the latter in the midst of a double-figure store closure plan.

Here in Cumbria we are far from immune to the difficult times our retailers are facing; and while the list above is comprised entirely of large household name retail chains, our smaller, independent retail businesses are facing their own huge challenges.

There is no question, really, that our towns must change in order to combat the ever-encroaching threat posed by the internet. How that can be achieved, of course, is the big question; and any form of consensus on the subject seems to be impossible. What is clear, however, is that our local authorities must take a clear – and long-term – position.

Out of town shopping development plans can have the most divisive effects upon communities, with battle lines drawn betwee those who believe they drive trade away from our town centres and those who hope they will encourage new shoppers to venture into town.

Today, we arguably do our shopping in different modes. First, we need to do our “big shop”: the trudge round for the day-to-day essentials of life; this is a shopping experience largely of the ‘grit your teeth and get on with it’ variety. A few years ago, it seemed that this type of shopping would be done largely on the internet – but that really hasn’t happened, not least because so many customers got heartily fed up with goods being delivered that were all at their use-by date on the same day, and with idiotic “substitutions” being made when specified items weren’t available. A friend once ordered a fresh chicken from Tesco for a Sunday roast – and it was substituted with a bag of chicken nuggets.

Internet shopping, however, does dominate in virtually every type of modern purchasing experiences – from clothes to cookers, from holidays to hardware; and it is that which is strangling our high streets. This is understandable, of course: we live in an age where the thought of getting something at the touch of a button appeals immensely – we are, of course, all so very, very, busy these days.

What, then, is left for our town centres? We don’t want to go into them for our daily essentials, and we don’t want to go into them for things sold by large chains of shops.

So, if the day of the high street chain is over, the day of the individual independent must beckon. I say it must beckon – what I really mean is that our towns must revert back to those days.

One-off, individual, local, personal shops are what will save our towns (just as they helped them thrive throughout their history) – and our local councils absolutely must help our independent traders if they don’t want the towns under their authority to all but die.

Cheap (or better, free) parking in town centres and affordable business rates are so self-evidently needed, it amazes me that so many councils wilfully go in the opposite direction. Draconian parking rules and restrictions are a massive disincentive for shoppers – and yet our councils just don’t seem to get it. It’s all very well in the tourist hotspots of the Lake District: visitors will stump up to trek with the madding crowds around towns such as Bowness, Ambleside and Keswick. But our more “local” towns don’t have that luxury - and that’s where they need help.

It is the customer who will of course always carry the cost of car parking and, ultimately, of high business rates. Local, independent traders will continue going to the wall if they are crippled by councils short-sightedly inflicting sky-high business rates upon them; and customers will flock to out-of-town retail parks with their free parking, rather than pay £1.60 an hour for the privilege of going into a town centre. While the internet goes about its business of destroying our town centres, our local councils should be doing everything they can to put up a fight, rather than at times giving the impression that they’ve already surrendered.