EAST Lancashire has been in a "recession" for a year, a trade boss has claimed.

Across the area, traders saw a slow start to the festive shopping season, which picked up with the new year sales.

But David Cottam, the president of the Blackburn Chamber of Trade, has claimed that the poor trading was similar across the last 12 months, and labelled it a recession.

He said: "The run-up to Christ-mas was pretty bad but it picked up in December.

"People don't like to use this word, recession, but for the past 12 months we have been in a recession, especially in East Lancashire.

"It was nice to see it pick up a bit just before Christmas and we are all hoping for a little bit in the sales to bring it back.

"Footfall has been better. I am getting the feedback that people are a little bit happier than at the beginning of the sales.

"We have put it down to a lot of things - for instance at the back end of last year people were in debt with credit cards.

"We have explanations for throughout the year.

"It's council tax time, or people are paying for holidays, we can find excuses for everything like it's pouring down with rain so people aren't going to come out and shop.

"People needed to consolidate their finances a little bit to see where they were going.

"Hopefully they have got that under control and will say, we have a little bit of money so we will go out and buy things.

"The retail trade is one of the largest employers, and if people aren't spending money, people can be laid off. It's like a ripple in a pond."

He said trade could pick up in 2007, as people take stock of their finances and start to spend a little more.

A recent survey carried out by insurance firm Direct Line showed that bargain hunters across the country were likely to spend almost £2billion more on the January sales than they did last year.

In total, more than £5.5billion will be spent during the sales, and retail analysts Footfall showed seven per cent more people visited shops on Boxing Day than last year.

And Mike Damms, chief executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said the last year had been "unexceptional" for most, with many traders likely to have suffered thanks to reduced spending from shoppers, the rise of online sales outlets, and aggressive sales in large shopping facilities like the Trafford Centre.

"Commerce has had a fairly static year.

"It hasn't been particularly good but it has certainly not been particularly bad either. Trading remains difficult."

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