THE TV retail guru, Mary Portas, is to host a working lunch next month to see if industry leaders have answers to the decline of the British high street.

In a gesture that has “gimmick” stamped all over it, she has been asked by the government to come up with ways to foster “more prosperous and diverse” town centres.

She might find it useful to talk to Stella Morris, owner of Sweetens, the Deansgate bookshop that has just closed because it could not cope with today’s tough economic conditions.

Stella took over the business 10 years ago and suffered from a range of problems including reduced town centre footfall, uncertainty over a £100 million redevelopment scheme that has so far failed to materialise, rising costs and the increasing popularity of online book sales and electronic devices such as the Kindle.

She and her husband Al, who live in Worsley, now plan to build up their internet business.

I have frequented Sweetens since 1980 and the decision to close is disappointing – but understandable.

Before she locked up for the last time she told this paper that she felt let down by the Town Centre Partnership and Bolton Council.

“They never come out and talk to the people in the shops and ask what’s going wrong,” she said.That may well be true, but the council does its best with events such as the Bolton Food and Drink Festival.

Unfortunately, that is not enough to sustain independent town centre shops throughout the year.

Loyalty tends to disappear when hard-pressed individuals — maybe battling the effects of redundancy — find it cheaper and more efficient to buy on line without incurring travel and parking costs.

I defend Bolton stoutly, but I have to admit that the closure of businesses such as Sweetens adds to the gloom.

Cllr John Walsh, the leader of the Conservative group on Bolton Council, took a traditional swipe at his Labour opponents in a letter published in this newspaper last week. Some of what he said made sense — a call for the introduction of some free short stay parking after 3 pm, for instance — but I doubt whether any council has a definitive answer in these cash-strapped times..

As I have suggested before on this page, I find it hard to believe the Portas report will tell us much that we do not know already.

We are unlikely to see an outbreak of free parking in towns across the country and the owners of shop premises will not be in a rush to reduce rents in order to help the local, quirky businesses that encourage shoppers to seek an occasional change from supermarkets and out of town retail complexes.

Sadly, we can expect more retail misery as the global monetary crisis continues.