London think-tank the New Economics Foundation is looking for local volunteers to survey Newbury's high street to discover whether chain stores are driving out local businesses, leaving us with an identikit town centre.

The foundation claims town planning rules need reforming to protect small independent shops, and argues that chain stores can damage the local economy as profits are collected centrally at head office, rather than reinvested in the town.

A small sample has revealed that clone towns, packed with the same clothes chains and coffee shops, are spreading. At the other end of the scale, many communities have lost most of their shops and services, and are regarded by the foundation as 'ghost towns'.

Andrew Simms, the Foundation's policy director said: "The apparent spread of clone towns has economic consequences as well, but more than that it suggests that outside a few metropolitan hotspots we are moving from cool Britannia to clone town Britain."

The Foundation is asking Newbury people to supply photographs to highlight the balance of independents and multiples, so it can rate the town.

The survey comes just weeks before West Berkshire Council announces who will build a new shopping centre in Park Way. The scheme is expected to bring in names like Miss Selfridge, Gap, H&M, and British Home Stores.