A former chairman of the Sheerness Town Team says he closed his shop because the council is not doing enough to support independent traders.

Pete Giffen has owned stores in the High Street for 14 years. He first opened Glitzy Bits and then O.So.U, which closed its shutters last week.

The 53-year-old called the Neats Court retail development the “first death knell of the High Street”.

Swale council has defended its efforts and said it works closely with the Town Team and has applied for significant funding to improve the high street area.

Mr Giffen said: “The town just isn’t busy enough and with the council’s full backing, the second and third phases of Neats Court will kill the High Street.

“It just showed to me that the council had no regard for the jobs that are created in the High Street.”

He added: “Our customers have been fantastic. We wanted to keep the shop for the people that used to come in and I will genuinely miss our customers.”

During his time as chairman of the Sheerness Town Team, Mr Giffen spearheaded an unsuccessful bid for Sheerness to become a pilot in a scheme run by Mary Portas.

The group was later awarded £10,000 by the government initiative and a further £45,000 by from Swale council’s High Street Innovation Fund.

A Swale council spokesman said: “Whilst the Council does provide an advisory service to support individual businesses, support for our local High Streets has been focused around town teams and traders, providing funding for programmes they have put together to encourage greater footfall and to improve the trading environment.

“The town team has not always found it easy to progress projects and secure the committed support of local traders but more than £20,000 is still available to be spent on events, promotions, and other activity which is beneficial to the town centre.

“The council is continuing to work with the Sheerness Town Team and others to try and bring forward new projects, including a bid made to the Heritage Lottery Fund in August for a £1.1 million programme of improvements in Sheerness Town centre.”