Bill White, who represents the town on Scottish Borders Council, hopes to publicly unveil his vision – and recruit active members – at the September 2 meeting of the community council.

He told the Border Telegraph this week that the need to find a solution to the problem of vacant retail premises was “more urgent than ever”.

He was commenting after First Minister Alex Salmond announced that the platform at the new Galashiels Station, part of the Stirling Street transport interchange, is to be extended to cope with extra long “tourist trains”.

It is part of a wider strategy, backed by the Scottish Government, to fully exploit the tourism potential of the Borders Railway which will become operational on September 6 next year.

The platform extension will, say its backers, “allow passengers to alight and enjoy the town centre”.

Mr White admitted: “There’s not a lot to enjoy right now with the blight of empty shops, particularly at Douglas Bridge and Channel Street, presenting an extremely unfavourable image of the town.

“Yet the transport interchange is being angled to encourage visitors to these streets.

“If the influx of visitors does materialise – and I think we all hope that it will – then time is running out to put things right and put our town in order.” Mr White said he wanted a “root and branch” review of what is creating the retail stagnation in the town centre, along with practical solutions.

“The attractiveness of recent landscaping improvements in Market Square and at the Fountain and longstanding assets like Bank Street Gardens cannot mask the lack of retail vibrancy,” he told us.

“Any task force will need to meet at least monthly and be both inclusive and small enough to make sure that decisions turn into action.

“It will obviously need representatives of local businesses, SBC and the community council, but also other interests, like landlords, accountants and lawyers with a specialist knowledge of the commercial property market, should be included.

“We will also want to talk to potential entrepreneurs about their requirements because we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to attract them into these empty shops and ensure we are not putting obstructions – like proscriptive planning policies – in their way.

“We must convince property owners that it is in their best interests to have their shops occupied, even if that means cutting rents so an early challenge will be finding out exactly who owns what.” The apparent mismatch between the tourism opportunities presented by the railway and the town centre’s retail decline was played down at this month’s meeting of the Eildon Area Forum by Galashiels SNP councillor John Mitchell.

“About 10 or 15 years ago, there were 35 empty shops in the town and I guarantee there are no more than that now,” said Mr Mitchell, who is SBC’s deputy leader.

“It is something that we as a council are monitoring all the time, but I have to say we need a stock of vacant shops available for the new start-ups which we believe the railway will encourage.” His SNP colleague Councillor Bill Herd took issue with Mr Mitchell’s figures, claiming there were currently 36 empty units compared to the 25 he had counted two years ago.

“The number varies from week to week and you have to remember the town is currently in the throes of terrible disruption because of the railway construction,” said Mr Herd. “The internet is just one factor which has changed the shopping environment and there are no easy answers.” In recent weeks two cafes, in Bank Street and Channel Street, have shut up shop with one operator claiming trading conditions had worsened since the opening of the Costa outlet within the Next fashion shop at the Gala Water retail park.

Although the Next planning consent was for non-food retail, the decision to allow Costa to operate there was made in 2012 by a single SBC planning officer.

“It may be that we do need to look at all our planning policies and tweak them where possible to stimulate more activity in our struggling town centres,” said Mr White.

He hopes that anyone who feels they can make meaningful input to the task force will come along to the community council meeting in the Burgh Chambers on Wednesday, September 2, at 7pm.

Alternatively, to express an interest, you can email Mr White on bill.white@scotborders.gov.uk