Leeds shoppers send the tills ringing

Footfall rose 1.7 per cent in the three months to December 31 and was up 4.2 per cent for the 52 weeks to January 3.

This was much better than the national trend with shopping centres across the UK seeing a 2.3 per cent drop in footfall in the last quarter of 2015.

Land Securities’ c​hief ​e​xecutive​ ​Robert Noel​ said: “We have had a good third quarter with robust operational performance including record footfall in our shopping centres and continued letting momentum in our development programme.”

Trinity Leeds’ general manager David Maddison said the weekend after Christmas was very busy despite the flooding in the city centre.

Next was a star performer, with queues forming for its traditional Boxing Day sale.

“The flooding took a bit of an edge off, but it certainly looked brisk to me,” said Mr Maddison.

Land Securities said retailer sales rose 1.2 per cent in the three months to December 31 and were up 4.3 per cent for the 52 weeks to January 3.

The Yorkshire Evening Post revealed last year a staggering 1.5m people have been clocked in the city’s retail hotspots in the run-up to Christmas.

The impressive figure is an increase of 0.7 per cent on last year. From December 14 to 20, 1.54m people were recorded in the city centre – a rise of 13.3 per cent on the previous week .

The YEP also revealed that 61.85m people have visited the city centre last year.

Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council, said at the time: “The continued strength of the Leeds economy is testament to our resilience to succeed in the face of challenging economic times.”