BOURNEMOUTH town centre has hit back with Christmas shopper numbers up by 26 per cent in some areas.

The six weeks leading up to the big day saw people back bustling round the streets after a quiet year.

But Castlepoint also enjoyed its busiest ever Christmas, with 530,000 cars visiting the shopping centre in December - 15,000 more than the previous year.

Roger Parker, Bournemouth's town centre manager, said footfall had been up overall by an "absolutely remarkable" 13 per cent compared to the same time in 2006.

During retail hours Commercial Road had a 26 per cent increase in footfall. Old Christchurch Road did less well with a seven per cent increase.

Thursday evening shopping saw an even bigger gap - Commercial Road was up by 9 per cent, but Old Christchurch Road was down by 45 per cent.

Pubs and clubs also saw 10 per cent footfall increases after 9pm.

Mr Parker said retailers had worked hard to put on attractive offers.

Nigel Hedges, vice president of the chamber of trade, was more cautious and said the feedback from members was trading had been "acceptable".

He said shoppers had been "very, very clever" with their money this year and had made less spontaneous purchases.

Trade magazine Retail Week said national footfall figures were 2.6 per cent down for December.

Cllr Robert Chapman, cabinet member for major projects and a ward member for the town centre, said: "I'm very pleased to hear about the increase because footfall has been worrying us for a couple of years.

"There's a lot of competition out there.

"It's good to know people are coming back into the town centre. It's good for the council, and good for retailers."

Peter Matthews, centre manager at Castlepoint, said they were also witnessing a busy start to the New Year.

New Year's Eve was particularly busy, with traffic queuing back onto Castle Lane and many drivers resorting to parking at the Mallard Road shopping development opposite Castlepoint.

"We were busy before Christmas but absolutely manic afterwards," he said. "At one stage, we had 20,000 cars coming into the centre on a single day.

"That's really hard for us to manage but we did our best by manning the roundabouts and the zebra crossings."