The UK seaside town with high street in crisis - 40 stores closed on two streets alone

A seaside town is facing a crisis in its high street, with over 40 stores shut between two roads - but a multi-million-pound investment is hoping to change that. Kirkcaldy's High Street and the seafront have been selected for the Government's Growth Mission Fund.

This initiative will allocate £240 million in funding between 2026/27 and 2029/30 to support projects that create local jobs and revitalise communities. Scotland's Fife Council is putting together a plan to transform Kirkcaldy "for generations to come", involving a long-running programme encompassing a range of activities and projects with a shared vision for the town.

Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath Labour MP Melanie Ward told Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this month that the town's high street has "been in a state of decline" for 20 years. It has been hit with a raft of shop closures in recent years, with 41 empty stores between Nicol Street and Dunnikier Road, according to The Courier.

Locals say this funding can't come soon enough. Resident Robert Ness, who works at an engineering solutions provider, told the Express that Kirkcaldy was once a "thriving industrial town" and later became the retail centre of Fife.

"Now," he said, "both are long gone, along with the pride we once had in our town, replaced by dereliction and poverty."

Ness pointed to the seaside as "one obvious asset we have left", but the town's design means "we cannot make the most of it". He added: "If the money could be harnessed to make use of the waterfront to attract tourism, then we could become Brighton of the North."

Many agreed that the council's plans should encourage tourism by embracing the seaside, which the town was built to face away from. Others said the key to bringing back the high street is small businesses.

Ruairaidh Agnew said that the council should be focusing on making rental units more affordable for those starting a business. He added: "It's great getting big giants of the retailing world into the town, it would bring more passing trade, but most businesses don't operate on passing trade; it's the community that keeps them afloat.

"I'd rather see a young person making a dream into reality than a mega corporation taking up space where someone local could be really making a difference to the town, not just to benefit the investors and trying to maximise profit."

But not all Kirkcaldy locals have faith in the regeneration scheme.

Wes Hall, who works at a metal fabricator, said: "Unless you're in a tourist trap, the high street is dead. Do we have high hopes that the money will be well spent? Probably not.

"Look at the money spent on a sculpture down by Morrisons. That disintegrated within 18 months and was removed. Then look at the money used to remodel the high street by the prom. Already, parts of the road are falling to bits. Jobs always seem to end up costing way over the estimate, and take three times longer than stated.

"The high street of the 1980s and 1990s isn't coming back. Shopping has changed dramatically. We have to embrace it and move with it."

Not everyone thinks Kirkcaldy is in crisis, with closing shops plaguing towns across the UK. Cookbook author Colin Salmond-Wallace said there are over 140 businesses trading and prospering, "or doing their level best to".

He added: "Kirkcaldy has the same issues every town of similar size and demographics has in the UK right now; online shopping has decimated footfall and the remaining physical architecture can't pivot as fast as changing trends therefore we are left with huge gaps to fill.

"I'll agree that creates a feeling of emptiness, but the suggestion that there is nothing going on at all is both offensive to the many local people trying their best to make things work and perpetuates the circular, negative narrative that has become so entrenched in towns like Kirkcaldy up and down the country.

"The high street does feel very empty, and worse is likely to come. I really hope that the council looks to the seafront, recreation, and tourism as a way of regenerating that area of town. We need to turn around our reputation as the town that turned its back on the sea."