To shoppers and business owners alike, the state of Sheerness town centre has been a bone of contention for years.

Complaints usually revolve around the number of shops sitting vacant and the lack of variety in the town centre.

The Sheerness Times Guardian wanted to find out whether these complaints were justified so we carried out our own survey.

Of the 208 shop fronts in the High Street, Hope Street, Trinity Street and some along Broadway, 16.3% were empty.

According to a recent study by the Local Data Company, the average for shops lying vacant in High Streets in Britain is 14.3%.

However, that takes into account High Streets only whereas our survey was of properties across the town centre.

We found that 19 of the shops were either hairdressers, barbers or beauty salons, the most common type of business, totalling 10.9% of all open properties.

The next most frequent type was takeaway or fast food restaurants with 17 locations, making up 9.8% of the town centre, followed by 14 fashion or clothing outlets, 8% of the shops.

The uneven distribution of shops can partly be explained by the fact that certain types, including hairdressers and sandwich bars, do not need planning permission in order to change the use of a shop.

Another factor in determining the look of the High Street is business rates.

High Street trader Ellie Wilson said the way the charges are decided is unfair. She owns Funky Divas, one of the 19 salons, barbers and hairdressers in the town centre.

She said: “I’m all for competition but we cannot offer £5 haircuts, like the ones that are opening. But they can if they haven’t got to pay business rates. If they are a new business and the rateable value of their property is low enough, they are exempt.”

The 40-year-old, who lives in High Street, Eastchurch, pays more than £500 a month in rates. She said her property had a rateable value of £12,100, meaning she misses out, by £100, on receiving further small business rate relief.

Business rates (also called non-domestic rates) are calculated using two factors.

The first is the rateable value, this is the worth given to all properties by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Each company is revalued every five years. The second is the non-domestic rate multiplier set by central government, currently 43.3p in the pound.

In order to calculate how much businesses pay, the council multiplies these two figures together to get an annual fee.

Swale council stressed it has no say in this calculation.

Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to all properties worth less than £18,000.

Shops with a rateable value less than £6,000 receive up to 100% relief until March 31 2013.

Businesses worth between £6,001 and £11,999 are discounted on a sliding scale of 2% for every £120 of their rateable value.

Properties that are rated at over £12,000 have to pay 42.6p in the pound instead of 43.3p but receive no further reductions.