Retailers in the East of England saw a rise in visitor numbers during the last bank holiday weekend of the summer.

Visits to shops in the region increased on Saturday and Sunday by 3.8pc and 9.6pc respectively compared to the same days the previous week, data from retail analysts Springboard found.

Monday, however, saw a fall in shoppers, with numbers down by 3.4pc.

The East's high streets faired better than England as a whole, which saw footfall on Saturday and Sunday rise by 5.4pc on both days, but fall by 7.1pc on the Monday.

The Royal Arcade in Norwich city centre, where a wide range of shops are based, had a successful bank holiday weekend.

Simon Ashdown, director of LPC1 which manages The Royal Arcade, said: “We were very pleased with the number of people that visited the Arcade over the bank holiday weekend.

"The week as a whole saw the highest number of visitors we have had this year, with over 53,000 people coming through. Saturday’s footfall was 7.4pc up on the previous week and 16.4pc higher than the corresponding Saturday last year with Sunday being 9.5pc better over both periods.

"While we won’t have Bank Holiday Monday’s numbers until next week, we expect them to be up too as the Arcade’s storeowners reported it was very busy.

"The news that Yalm food hall will be opening soon alongside the new stores that have opened recently has really made a positive impression with the people of Norwich and we look forward to announcing more new store openings soon.”

Prior to the bank holiday weekend, retail bosses across Norfolk and Suffolk were expecting a high number of visitors, partly due to the good weather forecast.

Many towns across the region were also holding events during the three-day weekend to draw people to shopping areas.

Mark Cordell, chief executive officer at Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District, said that the Suffolk town held its 10th annual Food and Drink Festival on the bank holiday Sunday Monday which had stalls and attractions across the town centre.

He said: “Bank Holiday weekend footfall levels in Bury St Edmunds, were as anticipated, very positive and above that of recent years, including pre-covid in 2019.

"The annual food and drink festival, organised by the Our Bury St Edmunds BID, attracted record numbers to the event on the Sunday and Monday, which supplemented the usual high numbers coming into the town centre every Saturday.”