Borough Council acts over eyesore TV shop left empty for 22 years

An empty shop that has blighted an Erewash town centre for almost a quarter of a century is to be finally brought back up to scratch after a borough council ultimatum to the owners of the former TV rental store.

The premises were where electrical chain Wigfalls had its Ilkeston branch – back in the days of old-style cathode ray tellies before flat screens even existed.

The boarded-up store has stood as a vacant eyesore on Bath Street since 2003, although the company was taken over by Dixons Stores Group in the late 80s, with its retained stores then taking on relevant company branding.  The parent company had a branch further up on Bath Street until more recent years.

The current owners of the building have now been ordered to quit leaving it to rot – as have the landlords of three more empty buildings in the town.

Two are also shops on Bath Street. One was called Belle Vue before it closed in 2018. The other – Andre’s Second Hand shop – was vacated more recently. The fourth building is around the corner on East Street – and used to form part of the old Wine Vaults.  

Erewash Borough Council is resorting to powers under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as patience with all the owners runs out. They have been issued Section 215 deadlines to sort the buildings out. 

The authority says failure to comply over the next few months will see the town hall “consider its options under the legislation”. This could even see the council commission the necessary work itself – before hitting landlords with the bill. 

Councillor Curtis Howard, who is Erewash’s Lead Member for Town Centres, Regeneration and Planning, declared: “Everyone knows the old Wigfalls has been neglected for years – literally falling apart. Earlier this year, we even offered its owner our new shopfront improvement grant, which could have funded £10,000 worth of repairs, but they didn’t even bother to complete an application.

“We’re not letting absentee landlords who don’t care about Ilkeston leave our town centre to rot any more.”