Ten years ago the future looked bleak for Brighton town centre with out-of-town shopping centres looming and uncertainty over the future of Churchill Square.

The Lanes appeared to be in decline; North Laine was a bit seedy while London Road and St James's Street seemed to be in permanent decline.

What a difference a decade has made. Churchill Square has been a stunning success since it reopened three years ago.

Rather than taking trade from other areas of the city it has brought in more visitors from outside.

Even the rest of Western Road, widely predicted to suffer, has instead prospered.

Waitrose has extended its supermarket while there are shops and restaurants moving into the old Debenhams store.

St James's Street, for all its failings, is now reviving with a number of new shops and restaurants.

Only London Road seems stagnant and that will be given a boost if something is built on the Brighton station site.

Apart from anything else, the sites will provide hundreds if not thousands of customers, both working and living there.

Part of Brighton's shopping success has been caused by the sheer ebullience of the place.

I hear plenty of criticism of the resort but it usually comes from the old and the sour.

Younger people generally think the place is wonderful and after all they are the future rather than the greybeard groaners But one of the other big reasons is the absence of any major out-of-town shopping centre.

There is the Holmbush Centre at Shoreham, but it's not all that big and it's remarkably soulless. There are just three big stores and there is a distinct absence of decent places to eat.

Towns and cities in other parts of the country are finding these centres a real threat.

York, which I know well, is ringed with them and they are sucking some of the life out of the place.

The Metro Centre is practically as big as Gateshead itself while Bluewater and Lakeside, the two enormous shopping malls on the east side of London, have an influence up to 50 miles away.

Brighton and Hove was fortunate in not having much room for these centres because it is so hemmed in by downland and owns nearly all the possible sites.

But it was also wise in not yielding to temptation and letting a downland valley go for development.

I hear complaints that Brighton and Hove is over-shopped, but they don't come from customers.

They are flowing into The Lanes, still one of the top tourist attractions, while the North Laine are seems set to rival them, not just through being wacky but with some really high class emporia.

What I would like to see is more effort by the shops themselves to help the city which has done them so proud.

At Christmas, an effort was made by the smaller shops, but Western Road must have been one of the few main shopping streets in the country not to have had Christmas lights.

The chain stores that dominate it are only too happy to take our money yet are strangely reluctant to give anything back, either in lights or in community effort.

I have a policy of boycotting many of the offenders and patronising the few to make a contribution.

It's even better to go to the local businesses that are making a real effort, like Donatello restaurant and Dockerills. If others would follow me, we may start a chain reaction.

Some disgruntled locals in the suburbs would rather go to Eastbourne, Worthing or even Tunbridge Wells rather than fight their way into Brighton.

While all these towns have fine shopping centres, they are not nearly as extensive or wide ranging.

They are certainly pulling in the punters from other places and the future now looks far brighter than the lights in Western Road.