Successful Shropshire retailers bucking national trend

Business advisory firm BDO said sales fell by 4.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year – the biggest fall since November 2008 and the fourth successive month of decline.

The UK has experienced its wettest summer since the drown-and-out washout of 2012, Met Office figures show.

While retailers have paid the price, Shropshire has shown signs of positivity.

Gill Gradwell, of Cooking Kneads in Shrewsbury's Wyle Cop, said: "I have been really pleased, we have had a good July and August and we are not going with the national trend.

"Whether the weather actually brought more people into the town, instead of going to coastal towns, I don't know, but our sales figures have been excellent for both months."

However, Kate Nore of Deliciate in High Street added: "I'm not surprised at the figures, it has been quite noticeable that the weather has had a real impact on the high street, although tourism brings it back up.

"If the sun is shining, we get amazing days, but if it rains you can go the whole day and think you may as well not have opened."

She said events such as the Pics In The Park outdoor cinema day, and Shrewsbury Folk Festival had a positive effect.

Footfall cameras installed by Shrewsbury's Business Improvement District show that the number of people heading into town increased between June and August, although no comparable figures exist for last year.

Jools Payne, chairman of Oswestry Chamber of Commerce, said her town had also bucked the national trend.

"Oswestry's retailers are having what appears to be a bumper summer, offering a very different picture to that painted by BDO today," she said.

"Major high street chains Boots, Max Spielmann and Timpson are all Oswestry Chamber members whose stores are performing strongly."