Independent shops in the Brunel Shopping Centre have spoken about the past year and operating during three lockdowns.

Something Different Gift Shop and the Incredible Comic Shop both had to close three times over the past year for a varying amount of time but both have survived thanks to local support with online and click and collect orders.

Ross Mulholland from Something Different believes the response to shops reopening shows how much people want a physical high street.

He said: "It's been really interesting, the most positive takeaway we've got is that in the time we've been able to open we've seen some considerable growth.

"There's a few different reasons for that, we've been able to analyse what does and doesn't work because we've been forced to step away and do so but also because it's reinforced what a physical high street means to our local community."

And Jonathan Brown from the Incredible Comic Shop believes his business will now lean more into online shopping in the future.

He added: "We're gearing ourselves up for online to be a bit more of our future now. We weren't focused on that before.

"So now we'll be making that a bigger part of the business."