Traders in the district are enjoying a boom in sales with footfall at shopping centres up substantially on last year.

The week before Christmas saw more than 220,000 people visit the Airedale Shopping Centre in Keighley – a 19 per cent increase on last year.

Up to 700 shoppers were queuing outside Next at 5.30am on Boxing Day, with people still waiting to enter the store four hours later.

Steve Seymour, the centre’s manager, said: “Footfall figures have absolutely gone through the ceiling this year but they are slightly slanted because there was an extra trading day. We really did have a very, very good Christmas and people had left their shopping until the last minute again. The store managers I have spoken to have been very positive on their sales figures.”

Shops in Shipley were also busy during the festive period. Town centre manager Yvonne Crossley said: “Everybody has been pleased with the trading figures over Christmas. With new businesses opening and businesses expanding it’s the first time vacancy rates have come down to 14.5 per cent since the first quarter of 2008. There’s more of a shopping offer, people are working hard to maintain momentum in the town.”

Jamie Illingworth, president of Bingley Chamber of Trade, said the town had been bustling over Christmas and New Year.

The Kirkgate Centre in Bradford welcomed almost 500,000 shoppers during the week before Christmas – an increase of five per cent compared to 2011.

Centre manager Catherine Riley said while figures for last week were yet to be released, footfall was also likely to have risen after thousands of shoppers visited to snap up bargains in the sales.

She said: “We were stowed out every day last week. The car park usage was hugely up last week. It’s because of the tremendous bargains in the store. It’s been a fantastic Christmas, New Year and start to the sales. It’s hard to know how long it will last. I think with the children going back to school we will see slightly less people but I expect it to be extremely busy at the weekend again.

“People are still coming to Bradford and we find they stay local during the festive season, the closer to Christmas it gets the closer they stay.”