TRADERS in the centre of Durham, hit by a fall in shoppers, were boosted by an influx of thousands of visitors for the city's Christmas festival at the weekend.

The streets were packed on Saturday, and even though there was rain and high winds on Sunday, there was still a good turnout.

Durham City Forum and sister-organisation, Marketing Durham, hope the two-day event, on a silver theme and with an enhanced programme of entertainment, will have helped revive the fortunes of traders who have seen shoppers desert the city centre for out-of-town complexes, such as the Durham Retail Park at Dragonville.

Colin Wilkes, of the forum, said many of the visitors had come on coach trips from Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Scotland and Birmingham, thanks to wider publicity made possible by funding from Culture 10.

"Saturday was a cracker,'' he said. "The general feedback was that it was an exceptional day, one of the best that we have had in the 12 years we have been holding the festival.

"Sunday was the worst day, weatherwise, but the turnout wasn't as bad as you would have expected. The entertainment programme was decimated because of the weather, but people still came, particularly coach parties.

"We had 35 to 40 pre-booked coaches on Saturday and 25 on Sunday. There may have been others that were not booked.''

Mr Wilkes said Durham Indoor Markets, of which he is managing director, was visited by 14,000 shoppers on Saturday and 7,000 on Sunday.

"That is 20 per cent up on the previous Saturday and the Sunday is 20 per cent up on the Christmas lights switch-on," he said.

He added: "I would like to think everyone benefited from the weekend."