SOUTHAMPTON shoppers spent their way to making the city a rare retail success story in what has been branded the worst Christmas for traders in 20 years.

Across the country, tidings of joy were thin on the ground on the shop floor over the crucial Christmas period.

Nationally, sales volumes fell one per cent in December, government figures have revealed. The total value of retail sales in December is estimated at £30.8 billion.

Clothes shops and non-specialist stores were the worst hit with only Internet retailers showing any significant growth, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Woolworths and Next revealed "disappointing figures" although there was festive cheer for fashion store Monsoon and gents outfitters Austin Reed.

The last time retailers endured a tougher Christmas was in 1981. However, in Southampton, the tills were jingling as the number of shoppers in the city centre swelled to 600,000 a week, almost double the 330,000 figures reported earlier in the year.

City centre manager Ian Rothwell said: "What we see here conflicts with the picture from elsewhere in the country.

"I think the south didn't do as bad as nationally and South-ampton nowhere near as bad.

"November was slow, there's no doubt about it, and December started slowly but picked up and that carried on through the sales. It got very busy in the run-up to Christmas and overall in Southampton Christmas was good."

City centre management does not collect sales figures from shops, but Mr Rothwell is in frequent communication with retailers and points to a sheaf of upbeat comments to back up his point.

He said: "I was very pleased, and surprised, to get such a positive response from everybody, given the rather negative stories in some of the national press. It would seem that, while other towns and cities are not so good, Southampton is still on top and doing well."

WestQuay shopping centre boss Andy Collyer agreed.

"We have seen a steady and positive growth in footfall throughout the centre over the Christmas period, with 125,000 visitors on the last weekend before Christmas," he said.

"It was the first year we have offered late night opening six days a week throughout December. This proved extremely popular, with 14 per cent of visitors coming to the centre to shop during extended trading hours."

Economics expert Tony Cottam, southern director of professional services firm KPMG, said: "Southampton has bucked the trend. It is a shopping destination once again and it attracts people from far afield."