Shops in Kingston town centre may be encouraged to open until 8pm five days a week, to give the economy a boost in troubled times.

Kingston Council wants to persuade traders of the economic benefits of opening later as part of a strategy to change the image of the town centre away from rowdy young people spilling out of nightclubs.

Town centre manager Graham McNally said: “The idea is to make a statement that Kingston is a metropolitan retail centre as opposed to a rather beautiful former market town.

“We are investigating that. We’re just trying to work out when this should happen, if it should happen, and getting our act together with that.”

Some stores already open late, such as Borders in Market Place, which opens until 8pm and has a Starbucks cafe inside.

Its manager, who asked not to be named, said: “It is offering a service that some of the other shops don’t offer. It fluctuates but if we have got events happening it draws people in.

“In Kingston you have got people who are working in the centre of London and are late coming back.

"They can get a last minute gift or something they saw in town.”

But some other shops may baulk at the idea.

Bob Ritchie, the Bentall Centre manager, said: “A lot of traders are very concerned about over extending themselves. It is one of those things for the backburner.”

The Bentall Centre is doing its own extension to opening hours, adding an hour until 9pm on a Thursday evening.

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