Rent hikes 'force shop from centre'

Businesses complained they were being stung by rent hikes of between 18 and 30 per cent by the council, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and private landlords.

One angry trader described the town as being like Life on Mars – the hit TV show which went back in time to the 1970s.

Dave Martin, co-owner of pet shop Fish and Cheeps, said his rent increase was 18 per cent but today the local authority said rent increases were more than fair, and some shops had not had rent increases for five years.

A council spokesman said: "We prefer not to bandy about the actual payment, especially as we've offered in our formal letter to discuss the situation with the pet shop.

"This is the first rent review the shop has had in five years. The total may seem a big jump for the tenant, but the rise is 1,200 – equivalent to 240 a year over those five years.

"That's less than 5 a week for each of the years. Our proposed new rent would bring the shop more or less into line with its neighbours. We'd still be very happy to meet up.

"Places like Doncaster have gone through the same experience as Rotherham as they upgrade their town centres.

"Our town centre team works tirelessly to improve visitor numbers, with marketing and events like the Bollywood evening, the monthly Farmers' Markets and the annual Continental Market and Rotherham-by-the-Sea.

"We did see a decline in footfall after Marks & Spencer moved across to Retail World at Parkgate, but we may just be seeing signs the tide is turning."