'Absentee landlords can't just leave our town centres to rot'

OWNERS GIVEN 90 DAYS TO IMPROVE HISTORIC BUILDING

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS

EREWASH Borough Council has served a formal notice to the landlord of a historic building in Long Eaton town centre which is described as "visibly decaying".

The council said it would not allow "absentee landlords" to leave Long Eaton "to rot".

The building in question was once a majestic property built by Montague Burton, "the Tailor of Taste", and founder of Burton Menswear, one of the country's biggest clothes shop chains.

The Art Deco property, which opened in 1935, was later divided into three separate units on the ground floor. One remained Burton Menswear until 2021 and reopened briefly as a YMCA charity shop, but it is currently unoccupied.

Other tenants on the ground floor are a barber and mobile phone repair shop. Upstairs is late-night bar Chalkies.