David Smyth, marketing manager at FootFall commented: 'To make a true like-for-like comparison with last year we have had to compare the Bank Holiday weekend this year with the first three days of the Jubilee celebration weekend last year as the traditional May holiday was moved to June. By doing this we can see that the holiday period this year brought more people out to the shops than last year. This probably had more to do with the country being in party mood last year than increased desire to shop this year. But even so this is still positive for retailers in this uncertain climate.'

Smyth points out, however, that comparing the Saturday and Sunday figures to the same weekend last year, shows a slightly different picture. Shopper numbers across the country were actually down by 3.6% on last year when it was regarded as a normal weekend. 'This was due to Saturday being 5.7% down on the previous year, which had more to do with the changeable weather than anything else,' he said. 'Sunday though saw an upswing of 2% but this was not enough to help the overall weekend figures. In conclusion this still indicates that there is a downward trend in shopper numbers at the moment.'