THE convenience brought by out-of-town shopping centres has been warmly received by Scottish consumers, as the thousands of cars parked outside Silverburn or Braehead each day readily testify.
But the rise of out-of-town malls has not been without cost.
While not being the sole cause of decline, there is no doubt provincial high streets have been badly hit as big-name retailers have packed up and headed for the purpose-built shopping Meccas.
The trend has not gone unnoticed at Holyrood.
The Scottish Government has broadly endorsed the "town centre first principle" recommended by the National Review of Town Centres it commissioned 12 months ago. It calls on public bodies to consider town centres first when making development decisions.
Edinburgh-based architect Malcolm Fraser, who led the review, can be satisfied his report is being taken seriously at the highest level of government.
And he is right to capitalise on that encouraging response with calls for more radical action.
Mr Fraser says the Business Rates Incentive Scheme is one piece of legislation which can be easily "refitted" to promote town centre revitalisation, in this case to ensure councils have more control of the taxes raised in their areas.
There seems little doubt some towns have been harmed by the march of the malls. And while some retail parks are closing in the US, the out-of-town sites are here to stay. Against this backdrop, measures to restore town centre vibrancy have never been so important.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article