Reinventing the high street: 'Quintessentially English' Kent town is Telegraph's High Street of the Year There are arts and crafts shops which use local wood, a store selling local flowers, and a fishmongers offering the local catch: with Dover sole a speciality. Deal feels like the quintessential English seaside high street and with affordable and accessible parking, it's easy as well as enjoyable to visit. Liz Hunt, Associate Editor, The Daily Telegraph, added that Deal was "a very good example for other struggling high streets of how an engaged local community, with support from local and national government, can match enthusiasm for their high street with good and innovative practice." The Telegraph also awarded the title of "High Street Champion of the Year," to Alison Stammers, the volunteer chairman of the Town Team in Chislehurst, Kent. Mary Portas, the Government's high streets adviser, said Miss Stammers was "an example to us all" in the way she had managed to attracted customers to Chislehurst despite the attractions of the nearby Bluewater Shopping Centre. She said: "What really inspired me in Alison is that she saw something needed to be done, but didn't wait for others, or get put off when it became clear how much hard, complicated work it would be." Read Brandon Lewis's tribute to Deal for winning The Daily Telegraph's inaugural High Street of the Year award at www.telegraph.co.uk/reinventthehighstreet