Rother Valley MP Jake Richards wants to restore pride in high streets

In many cases, they are replacing the butchers, bookshops, or cafés that many people say they want.

It's a trend that has prompted concern across the UK and Rother Valley MP Jake Richards is pretty outspoken about it.

“Rother Valley has been swamped with vaping shops, betting shops, and fake barbers, while the shops and services people actually want disappear,” he claims.

“Labour is putting a stop to it. Under new plans, local people will finally have the power to block unwanted shops and take back control of our high streets.

“Councils will also get new powers to seize empty shops and bring them back into use, so we can see proper local businesses… not endless vape stores,” he added.

For him: “This is about pride in Rother Valley, giving people a voice, and restoring our high streets for the community.”

Government proposals would give local authorities more scope to deal with boarded-up properties.

Concerns about the changing face of town centres are not confined to Rotherham.

MPs and councillors across the country are raising similar complaints about the dominance of vape and barber shops.

A polling survey this year found more than six in ten people thought there were too many vape shops on their high street, while over half said the same about barbers and hairdressers.

Where greengrocers, bakers, bookshops and family-run cafés were once a staple, many town centres now offer a narrower and more repetitive mix.

Others, however, argue that such outlets are simply responding to demand.

Vaping has grown as an alternative to smoking, and people always need affordable haircuts.

From that perspective, there's an argument that these shops provide services people genuinely want; they pay rent on empty units, create jobs and put money back into local economies.

Mr Richards' social media viewpoint attracted strong opinions from the public, some asking him to define what a 'fake' barber shop was.

Others pointed out the effects of big supermarket players.

"Shops and services people want disappear due to the astronomical costs and competition like Aldi and Tesco. The traditional High Street is disappearing across the country not just here and that's just a change of the times unfortunately," said one.

Another: "The economy simply doesn’t support the ideal of a butchers, bakers and candle stick maker anymore.

"We destroyed it by letting capitalism run wild and never said 'enough.' You’d have to shut down Tesco and Aldi to make it work. Big chains are incompatible with local social shopping."

And another: "I genuinely think that the High Street as we knew it is a thing of the past, largely down to supermarkets and online retailing.

"When we do get a good place to spend our money, they don’t last long because people just don’t use them enough or they can’t afford the business rates.

"The vape shops, takeaways, barbers, and nail bars are not ideal, but while ever people are using them… they aren’t going to disappear anytime soon.

"And to be honest, I’d sooner have the less than ideal shops, than empty or boarded up stores."