A Mid-Essex shopping centre is remaining closed on Boxing Day despite its rivals opening their doors to bargain hunters.

Malcolm Tilsed, manager of the Meadows Shopping Centre said pre-Christmas business had been so good that staff and customers deserve the Christmas break in full.

Meanwhile High Chelmer Shopping Centre and Debenhams in Chelmsford and Braintree Freeport will be open on December 26 for the post Christmas sales.

Mr Tilsed said: "The market in retailing is a bit difficult at the moment in the UK but we are holding our own in Chelmsford because it is a very prosperous area and everybody is looking forward to a great Christmas.

"There is not much enthusiasm here for opening on Boxing Day so we won't be opening."

Responding to a request from the newly enlarged HMV record store, High Chelmer manager Mick McDonagh has polled his shop and store tenants.

He received a "positive response" to plans for a Boxing Day opening.

Mr McDonagh said: "Things are going very well.

"We will be open Boxing Day along with selected stores in the High Street area and we expect to do better than we would on January 2."

A Debenhams spokesman said: "Our staff have the opportunity to choose whether they work on Boxing Day or New Year's Day, and we also take on part-timers at Christmas who are always keen to earn more money."

Freeport Centre Manager at Braintree Mr John O'Shea said all the centres run by the managing agents Realm opened on Boxing Day.

He said: "Boxing Day for the last 20 years has traditionally become associated with the first day of the sales.

"The point is that customers have come to expect places to be open on Boxing Day for the sales. It is something they have come to expect right across the board and if they didn't open it would be noticed and people would wonder why."

The shopworkers' union USDAW said it had recently helped win legislation to make Christmas Day sacrosanct but Boxing Day is worked as a public holiday by rota where shops decide to open.

A spokesman for the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford commented: "Boxing Day is not a religious holiday as such and as it is a Sunday this year we expect people will work their lives round it as they usually do."

What do you think? Write to Letters, Essex Chronicle, Westway, Chelmsford or e-mail: letters@essexchronicle.co.uk

Published Wednesday December 15, 2004

Brought to you by the Essex Chronicle