Trevor Richards, who owns Campbells Store and Morpeth Gallery, said the CBD needed a shakeup and used Bowral as an example of what Maitland could be.

"The first thing, look at businesses in Maitland," he said. "I think council is attracting wrong sorts of businesses. They should look at Bowral - there's dress shops with a fellow playing a grand piano, high quality restaurants and cafes."

When asked if Maitland would support such a set up, Mr Richards pointed to his own suburb as proof.

"Morpeth was not always like this. You've got to build it and people will come."

Related: East Maitland shops buzzing but different story in The Levee

Maitland City Council said it was preparing a new business attraction prospectus for Central Maitland and had launched Create Maitland at The Levee to activate commercial property and attract tenants. A spokesperson also said council worked with Levee businesses in several ways to help them perform during a difficult time for retailers nationally, including working with the Hunter Region Business HUB.

But Mr Richards said while The Levee and other retail strips were struggling, his sales were up 18.67 per cent in 2019 on the previous year.

He said this was despite council "not supporting businesses outside The Levee".

Mr Richards has long been critical of council and what he perceives as its lack of support for Morpeth. But he said he was particularly frustrated by a recent business update council emailed out.

The email said council supported local business by: delivering a marketing and activity plan to develop The Levee, running a successful program of events and activations, investing in infrastructure, partnering with Service NSW to ease the process for locals to run a business and connecting businesses with the right support.

"When you go through what they're doing for business - it's all about The Levee, not Morpeth, not East Maitland, not Lochinvar.

"But all the marketing they waste on it is coming to no fruition. It's absolutely bizarre, you can't do stuff like that and not back it up.

"No money for any project nor event ever comes back to Morpeth - not one off street car park, no additional public toilets, not one cent of funding for any of the events held in Morpeth."

Related: Vacant shops in The Levee: Is parking the problem?

But council disagreed and said it had promoted Morpeth for many years.

"The Morpeth Business Review and Development Plan was commissioned and funded by Council in 2016 and included consultation with Morpeth businesses, which helped inform its development," the spokesperson said. "The actions identified in the report were a shared responsibility of both council and the Morpeth business community."

Council said it was working through the actions "including but not limited to a parking audit, upgrades to Illalaung Park and civil works in Swan and Tank Streets".

"Council included Morpeth in the #MyMaitland campaign and, more recently, the Make it Maitland campaign 2019, in which Morpeth featured heavily. This included video, photography, social media posts and participation in media familiarisations which resulted in extensive free media coverage for the village and its businesses. A video on the history of Morpeth with the Morpeth Museum as the call to action was also developed and distributed."

Council said it also sponsored the Maitland Triathlon in Morpeth, included Morpeth in Street Eats and hosted Christmas at the Common in the past year.

"Morpeth will also feature strongly in the Destination Management Plan for Maitland, the draft of which is currently being finalised. Council staff also meet with representatives from the It Must Be Morpeth group on a quarterly basis to discuss opportunities for promotion of Morpeth."