AMONG the row of boarded-up shops in Festival Walk shopping parade is a sign that contradicts its bleak surroundings.

Placed above the door of a shop that closed long ago, it reads: "Incentives Available". But there are no incentives here.

The shopping area makes for a depressing sight where metal shutters on disused shops outnumber window displays.

Businesses along the parade and in the town's main street complain that the town centre is in desperate need of a facelift, that the incentives for other companies to move into the area are not there. Investment, they say, is urgently needed.

At Blythe's Family Fashions, just around the corner from Festival Walk, is another sign. "Closing Down" it reads. The shop, which has served the people of Spennymoor for two decades, has lost trade dramatically and because it is no longer making money the owners have been forced to close its doors for the last time.

Worker Edna Musgrave revealed that trade in the town centre was poor. She believed that the losses at Black & Decker will hit the shops in the street hard.

"Trade is bad enough in Spennymoor as it is," she said. "We have been here for 20 years but we are closing at the end of the month because of that.

"The redundancies at Black & Decker are going to have a huge effect here. It will bring an awful lot of despair to people's lives."

In January last year, the local Conservative Party conducted a survey of 1,500 residents to gauge their views on the town. The survey showed overwhelmingly that people felt ashamed of the town centre and described it as a "dump" and an "absolute disgrace".

There was optimism that the new owners of the shopping parade, London-based owners Pine Commercial Properties, would revitalise the area but a year later, the boarded-up shops remain, though elsewhere improvements have been made.

Newsagent Margaret Bingham unwittingly delivered the news of the job losses to Black & Decker workers. For 17 years her business has run a stall outside the plant selling newspapers to employees and yesterday morning her batches of The Northern Echo delivered the news everyone had feared.

She said: "It was terrible. The look on their faces when they read it in black and white. It was awful to watch, and so sad. They were devastated.

"A lot needs to be done here in Spennymoor. When you look at the shopping precinct, it is an absolute disgrace.

"There is no industry left here at all. Why doesn't Tony Blair get his finger out and do something for his constituents nearby?"

Bill Waters, Sedgefield Borough Cabinet member for regeneration and leader of Spennymoor Town Council, agreed that money needed to be ploughed into the town.

He said: "We are calling on the Government to make a massive investment in the borough and its regeneration.''

He said that the council would need to work with partners, One NorthEast and Durham County Council, to try and attract employment to the area.

"We have been doing regeneration work in the town centre and working with the owners. They have been good to work with and things have been going well. This announcement has taken the shine off it a bit."