SHOPPING centres across the city enjoyed a bumper festive period...with customers splashing out after years of market uncertainty.

Businesses in Chelmsford experienced increased footfall and a significant rise in revenue, with one shopping centre reporting a record breaking month.

High Chelmer enjoyed a six per cent increase in footfall, with more than 1.1 million shoppers visiting the centre during the festive period.

Mick McDonagh, the centre manager, said: “Not only was our footfall considerably higher than 2015, but we were well above the national benchmark of visitors to shopping centres across the country, continuing to prove that High Chelmer is an extremely popular shopping destination in the region.”

He put the success down to new stores, and the multi-million pound Exchange development, including restaurants Cote, Bourgee, Carluccio’s and Turtle Bay.

 Neil Ridley is the spokesman for Aquila Holdings, the company which heads up the 300, 000 sq ft Bond Street shopping centre.

He said: “Anecdotally our traders have said they did better than expected over Christmas. We expected it to be this successful, and we are really delighted.”

He added talks are now being carried out with more household fashion names, who look set to open this year.

He said: “We can’t say who is looking to move in, but there should be a couple more by Easter and another couple by summer.

“What attracts people to Bond Street is the experience. As well as the wide variety of shops, there are plenty of restaurants and the Everyman cinema, which is a welcomed addition.

“When we carried out research before opening, we predicted a 20 per cent rise in revenue in the city centre.”

Traders in the Meadows also saw figures improve compared to December 2015, and a 31 per cent increase in footfall compared to the month before.

The new store in the centre, Parmars, also traded “very well” a spokesman said.

She added: “We experienced the loss of one of our anchors BHS last year.

“With that in mind we were pleased that we had an exceptionally busy December compared to November 2016.

“We focussed on driving dwell time in our centre and introduced a Christmas campaign and activities that included giant elves, and a charity gift wrapping station, a naughty or nice app and online competitions.

 It comes despite retailers being under increasing pressure - including the impending living wage rise, uncertainty over Britain’s relationship with the European Union, the Government’s re-evaluation of business rates and the rising popularity of online shopping.

A spokesman for the Essex Chamber of Commerce, which represents the business community in the county, said: “Our members remain optimistic that trade is on the up, but the future looks unpredictable.”

Nationally, supermarket sales were overall up by 1.8 per cent - but Aldi and Lidl saw far higher growth of 11.8 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.