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 mine1 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 website1, it's called City Centres. Aha, it's available on Shed Anthems2, 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 it2...
This is part of my site The Folkestone Gerald that I set up in a fury of excitement when I first came to Folkestone sometime in '04. I had been a frequent visitor for a while previous to that so I am technically one of those DFLs you get now. This site was updated more frequently with a gig calendar and voting for favourite places + things, and I know it was a useful reference for others who were moving to the area. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though just a couple of miles) it doesn't get as much love as it used to. Ironic really as The town is now becoming the exciting place we knew it was about to become. My name is not Gerald by the way, the name comes from the name of a pretend paper in an episode of The Day Today or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are great aren't they? Do get in touch if you have something to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on Twitter.