ST Helena Hospice’s empire of charity shops has grown yet again, with two new stores opening their doors.

The charity has opened shops in Tiptree and Brightlingsea, its first in each of the villages, bringing its total number of stores to 14.

While some are traditional charity shops, selling on donated items, others specialise in vintage items, furniture and coffee.

Some traders are concerned about the impact the increasing number of stores will have on their businesses.

The hospice’s Books & Coffee shop, in St John’s, Colchester, is just around the corner from the Tea Rose Cafe, run by Lee Parkes, 46.

He said: “It has impacted me and other people running similar businesses. My sort of customers are the ones who would go there if their coffee was 5p cheaper than mine. They just want it as cheap as possible.

“They will be selling alcohol and kebabs next. They’re trying to take everything.”

Clare Oakey, who owns Frippery gifts, in St Isaac’sWalk, said, while she supported the hospice and everything it did, she was also worried about too many charity shops in the town centre.

She said: “The feedback we’ve had from the public is it’s lovely to have the charity shops, but they don’t want the town to be entirely full of them.

“While charity is a great thing, you need diversity in a town.

“Charity shops have become businesses in their own, which is fine, but in terms of competing on a level playing field, they do get reduced rates.

“There are very few concessions for small independents in the town.”

Indi Allen, head of retail operations at the hospice, said: “Due to the supporter base we have in these areas, the decision was made to open the outlets, not only to generate further funds for patient and family services, but also to give these communities an opportunity to learnmore about the hospice, inviting them to learn about the work we do, the services we offer and also the ways people can get involved with the charity.

“There are patients and families from across north East essex and the Colne Valley area of mid Essex under our care, sowe think it’s important the hospice is represented across this area as a way to raise awareness.

“Our shops play an important part in working towards our strategic goals, specifically that of promoting open attitudes in our community towards death, dying and bereavement.

“A large majority of items we sell are donated goods, meaning we’re ensuring maximum money is raised to support our patients and families.

“It also contributes towards recycling, ensuring less items go to landfill.

“We do our best to ensure our running costs are as low as possible, employing one member of paid staff per shop, with as many volunteers as we can get.”

In 2014 hospice accounts show its income came from the NHS (£2.6m), legacies (£1m), donations and fundrasing (£1m), lottery surplus (£600,000), retail (£370,000) and investments (£265,000).

Its income was £9m and it spent £8.2m.