The evidence cited in support would be that most locals there are firmly behind a planned shopping development, says the Guardian... I think the HMV is a GOOD THING, not so sure about Asda but who knows. We have plenty of little independent shops, and there's no danger of them being washed away, it's the one's down the main stretch of the (new) High Street that need to worry, and they're all rubbish anyway.
Friend of mine has done a song about why this hysteria about town centres becoming clones of each other is all rubbish too, I hope you can find it on his website, it's called City Centres. Aha, it's available on Shed Anthems, along with "Things'll Be Different (When I'm In Charge)", "The Fair Play Trophy (again)", "Billy Jones Is Dead", "The Primal Rhythms Of The Bolivian Nose Flautist", and "Let The Weird Band Win". It's brilliant, you should get it...
This is part of my website The Folkestone Gerald that I built in a fury of excitement when we first moved here sometime in 2004. I'd been a frequent visitor for a while previous to that so I am technically one of those DFLs you get nowadays. The site was updated more frequently with a gig calendar and voting for favourite venues and stuff, and I hear it was a useful reference for others who were moving here. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though only a couple of miles) it doesn't get as much attention as it used to. Ironic really as The town is now becoming the exciting place we always thought it was just about to. My name is not Gerald by the way, this comes from a fake newspaper in an episode of Brasseye or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are GRATE aren't they? Do get in touch if you have anything to contribute, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on the twitter.