by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Nearly a quarter of a million shoppers visited Bluewater over the weekend - the highest for this Christmas season.

The figure was 6% up on the same period a year ago and 8.4% on Saturday.

Part of the increase was down to the retail and leisure centre's extended opening hours, from 9am to 11pm, which will be in place until Saturday.

General manager Robert Goodman said: "This is our busiest weekend of the year so far.

"This Saturday was different to the previous weekends, however, as we're now into our Mega Day fortnight, where we are open until 11pm until 22 December.

"Consequently, we had more couples and family groups taking advantage of the convenience of shopping later."

Mr Goodman added: "We are anticipating further strong performance next weekend, as the holiday season starts in earnest."