A BETTING shop in Worcester city centre is the latest shop to close in a city street.
Backhouse Bet in Angel Street closed on Monday, with a sign on the door informing customers.
The sign said: "This shop will close from April 1.
"Any outstanding winning bets can be collected from any other Backhouse bet shops.
"Thank you for your custom in the past."
Backhouse Bet is an independent bookmaker, originally established in 1921 and has its head office in Wiltshire. The Worcester News contacted the firm for further comment, including on the number of redundancies, but had no response before our deadline.
The shop is the latest to close in Angel Street, with a report from Worcestershire County Council last year saying the street had several empty, derelict buildings and had become a "hotspot of violent crime".
Among the empty units are the former Co-op store, which saw plans for it to be turned Victorian-style gin palace turned down in 2017.
Karen Baldwin, manager of She Hair Extensions in the street, said something needed to be done to turn the tide.
"We have just been left," she said.
"We were promised at one point this street would be done up. They promised our fronts would get done, the pavements would get done, but nothing has happened. No one seems to care.
"And we can't get a shop elsewhere because of high rents."
A staff member at The Cricketers pub added: "They are independents here and the council have only got so much power.
"If they did want to do some regeneration here we would support that. We would prefer to see those units filled, that goes for any street in Worcester."
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