Epsom council is letting the town centre go "more and more downhill", according to the leader of a campaign group aiming to safeguard the character of the town.

Tina Mountain, coordinator of the Save Epsom campaigning group and prospective candidate for Epsom in this year’s Surrey County Council elections, said the council has no plan of action to save the "declining town" and that she would implement a number of changes to boost the town centre if elected in May.

Ms Mountain said: "I don’t feel our council has any plan and is just muddling its way through. It’s been in power for 75 years and Epsom has just gone more and more downhill.

"I want to promote a one-way traffic system in the high street which will take traffic past the station and create a pedestrianised area at the top end of the high street, running from Marks and Spencer to the Barclays bank.

"Parking costs also need to be reduced.

"But how can we fill the vacant shops unless we promote an area where people want to come?

"The Ashley Centre just dominates and, we need to keep it, but we need to promote an area outside of the centre.

"Students from UCA and other further education colleges could be given non-static stalls to give them a chance to see if they can sell their wares and, if they can, they may want to set up in one of the vacant shops.

"Getting Epsom into Zone 6 is also terribly important."

In a survey conducted in Epsom High Street by local market research video company Vox Pops International, residents were concerned that "things are shutting and not being replaced" and that the town centre is "drab" and looks "rundown".

Myles Rowland Archibald, general manager of restaurant Field to Fork, voted the borough’s best restaurant at the Epsom and Ewell Business Excellence Awards 2012, said: "I just don’t feel any community in Epsom.  I don’t feel anybody really cares."

Diane Earnshaw, founder of Vox Pops International, said "I was interested in gauging the views of local businesses and residents in Epsom.

"Epsom is blighted by empty commercial units and the High Street is dominated by charity and pound shops.

"The findings have been passed on to Epsom and Ewell Council who can then use the data to determine how to revitalise the town centre."

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