I refer to an article on small shops competing with the Trafford Centre.

Seven hundred and fifty small businesses needing help is just the tip of the iceberg. The manager of the Ellesmere Centre said, in an article about the effects of the Trafford Centre, that most of the tenants were quite happy with their trade over Christmas. Well we, in our little shop, were not - that question was never asked of us.

In looking at our figures and comparing the last two years, we can see that trade has diminished and, since the Trafford Centre opened, it has just got worse, with customers becoming thin on the ground. We have actually suffered nearly 50pc reduction in turnover which, for a shop of our size, or any size for that matter, is frightening. There are days when no money has been taken, but the bills still have to be paid.

We know we are not alone in this predicament and, along with others, we are hanging on - not just by our fingertips - but by the skin of our teeth. As the article quoted "Eccles may well become a ghost town", well Walkden feels like that already.

Ours is a specialised baby goods shop offering customised handmade items. How are we expected to survive? How do we pay the rent, never mind the rates and any other bill that gets thrown at us?

What the general public do not realise is that small shops like ours have to pay for all the items that we stock before we can actually put them on sale. We do not have the benefit of sale or return.

Who is going to help us stay in business and provide a service to the public?

At this rate the powers that be might as well erase these centres to the ground and have large car parks instead.

Sleepy Corner & Friends

Lower Egerton Walk, The Ellesmere Centre, Walkden

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.