MAJOR high street retailers have already snapped up most of the space in Maidstone's Fremlin Walk retail development, due to open in time for Christmas 2004.

About 60 per cent of units in the 350,000 square foot shopping centre, sited between Week Street, Earl Street, Fairmeadow and St Faith's Street, have already gone.

House of Fraser, Boots, Gap and Dixons will be among the stores lining a series of landscaped streets and squares.

The developer spearheading the new centre, Centros Miller, predicts it will push Maidstone into the top 50 retail centres in the country and help the county town compete more effectively with the Bluewater shopping centre at Greenhithe, near Dartford.