WORCESTER’S shops and businesses are bucking the national trend and reporting ringing tills despite the so-called credit crunch.

A recent survey carried out by business group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) showed that high street retailers were experiencing the worst slump in sales in a quarter of a century.

But big chain stores, independent shops, bars, and restaurants in Worcester city centre are said to be “holding their own” despite rises in the price of fuel, mortgages, and domestic bills putting the squeeze on people’s spending power.

City centre manager Georgia Smith said: “There are always people doing better and some people finding it a bit more difficult, but all of the places seem to be doing a reasonable trade.

“It’s very difficult to say why that is. I think we have got reasonable employment still in Worcester so although people are suffering with fuel increases, rises in mortgage prices, people are still employed and visitors are still coming in.

“We also have events such as the Worcester Festival and the Three Choirs Festival bringing people to the city, which helps traders and leisure attractions. “We definitely seem to be holding our own at the moment.”

We reported in your Worcester News last month how CrownGate Shopping Centre – which is currently undergoing a £3.2 million makeover – saw an increase in ‘footfall’ – the number of people passing through the doors – and encouraging sales compared with the same period last year.

Centre manager Erica Burlace said she thought rises in fuel prices might be forcing people to shop closer to home rather than going to Merry Hill and Birmingham.

She said: “What’s good is that we have got a lot of different sectors in Worcester and we have a fairly mixed demographic. We have seen a very slight decrease in the use of our car park but we have simply put that down to the rise in fuel costs.

“What we are seeing is that when people are coming in they are spending the same amount on produce and retail goods, but they are coming in less often.”

Concerns from the Forum of Private Business that high street trade is being affected by a rise in car parking charges have also been countered.

Worcester City Council’s civil enforcement team leader Andy Chinn said there had been little or no change in the amount people use the 15 car parks under his control.

He said: “In general terms car park usage is more or less the same as this time last year which, I suppose, is quite pleasing really. We have certainly not noticed a fall in numbers because of things like car sharing.”

A spokesman for First said a similar number of people were using their buses to get into Worcester city centre.

He said:“We have had a look at the trends over the last six months and it is pretty stable. There has been quite a considerable increase in concessionary travel though.”