When the government allowed non-essential shops to re-open earlier this month, we all breathed a sigh of relief.

But even as shoppers returned to Maidstone town centre, it soon became apparent that it was to a very different retail world.

Not only did some shops choose not to re-open, many others were still restricting the number of customers entering the premises in order to observe social distancing regulations.

But there was another more fundamental change - many of our old favourite businesses were simply no longer there.

Since the first lockdown in March last year, a number of big names have landed in financial trouble and smaller independent firms too have vanished.

At present, Fremlin Walk currently has 15 empty units and The Mall Shopping centre has 17 vacancies.

Not all closures can be directly attributed to the effects of Covid - there is always a turnover of businesses on the High Street as fashions wax and wane. In addition, the move towards on-line shopping was already taking its toll on store-based businesses even before Covid.

Fortunately, the trend is not necessarily irreversible and we should welcome the new retailers now joining us.

Nationally Debenhams and Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group both went into administration. The latter encompassed the familiar names of Topshop, TopMan, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Wallis and Dorothy Perkins.

Debenham's has briefly re-opened 97 stores across the country for a "fire-sale", but they will all close finally on May 15.

Online retailer BooHoo has agreed to buy the brands of Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton, but not the shops themselves.

Peacocks, Jaeger, Bonmarche and Monsoon Accesorize also called in the administrators, though at present both the Peacocks shop and the Bonmarche store in The Mall at Maidstone are still operating.

The Jaeger brand has been purchased by M&S, but all its shops will still close.

The administrators found a rescuer for Monsoon Accessorize, but too late to save its stores in Maidstone's Week Street.

DW Sports fell into administration last summer and closed its Fremlin Walk store in August.

One of the biggest names, with the most distinctive brand, which shoppers will surely miss greatly, is Laura Ashley - now vanished from its spot in Fremlin Walk.

Jonathan Creek of Harrisons Chartered Surveyors reviewed the situation.

He said: "You only have to walk around the town to see the situation for yourself. There are vacant units in Week Street, Fremlin Walk and The Mall."

Mr Creek said: "Quite a lot of the bigger names have gone: the Co-op in Week Street is one. One of the two Marks and Spencer shops in Week Street.

"Of course, M&S opened a new store at Eclipse Park and that is something else town centres have to cope with - the lure of out-of-town retails parks with their free parking."

But he was optimistic for the future and said: "Many closures had been restaurants and cafes, but with the easing of lockdown the hospitality sector is definitely coming back and there have been several new openings."

Among them are Bliss Cafe Bar and the Green Room, both in King Street.

Harrisons handles the lettings for the Royal Star Arcade.

Mr Creek said: "We've fared better than most. The Royal Star tends to cater for the smaller, niche businesses, perhaps a bit upmarket. We only have one vacant unit and we've been inundated with inquires for that. In fact I would say in general the level of interest now is higher than it was pre-covid."

The Royal Star has actually increased the number of units, creating an extra six in the walkway through to Market Buildings. All but one have already been taken up.

One Maidstone is the organisation representing businesses in the town centre. Its figures show that at the start of April there were 118 empty premises - up from 96 in October last year.

But it's not all doom and gloom.

One Maidstone manager Ilsa Butler said: "We can also report that there have been 15 new businesses opening in that same period, and we hear of several more since the survey was undertaken at the beginning of the month.

"Though there have been some closures of larger stores, and some chain restaurants that previously had branches in the town centre have decided not to reopen, we are seeing encouraging resilience from the independents."

New businesses to arrive include Pure Gym in King Street, Blush Beauty and Moo Boo tea shop in The Mall, and Man Cave barbers, which has moved into premises vacated by Lottie's Loft, which has in turn moved into the Royal Star Arcade.

Gavin Cockayne, the general manager of The Mall shopping centre, said: "We are pleased to have our retailers back open for trading, particularly Matalan, PureGym, Subway and MooBoo who are all recent additions to our retail line up at The Mall Maidstone."

He said: "Footfall and basket sizes since reopening have been encouraging, reflecting pent up demand for physical retail, and we are confident that this will continue to grow as more and more of our guests from the local community return to our centre as restrictions are loosened further.

"I’d like to thank our team for all their hard work in ensuring our retailer customers’ stores and our centres reopened quickly and safely to serve our local community.”

Canterbury has seen a similar pattern of shops closing down and new ones opening in fact, more than 40 city centre businesses closed down in the last 12 months in the city as the retail and hospitality sectors were ravaged by the pandemic.

But 25 new outlets have opened and the streets have once again bustling with shoppers and business leaders are optimistic the tide is now turning.

And Sheerness High Street has also changed quite a bit since the pandemic hit.

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