Jo-Anna Tunney, of Jo-Anna's Wardrobe in Princess Street, said publicity campaigns were needed to boost Knutsford.

"I think the traders are managing and some are doing very well, but I would like to see more promotion of the town centre," she said.

"Knutsford should be packed with Christmas shoppers. It can't just rely on its prettiness anymore."

Now Mrs Tunney is moving her main business from Knutsford to Manchester Airport's terminal two instead.

There, more than 350,000 people, who might make last-minute holiday buys, will pass her shop window each month.

"In Knutsford we are just not getting the amount of passing custom required to keep the shop going as it is," said the former BA air stewardess.

But yesterday (Tuesday) Alec Guthrie, of Knutsford Business Enterprise, said that town trade had been good in the past two weeks.

He and Richard Broadbent, of Broadbents in King Street, now want all the town's women's fashion retailers to group together and promote themselves. "A group effort rather than individual ads in magazines will have more of an impact," he said.

Mrs Tunney, who only opened her fashion shop with husband Keith in September 1998, said she had originally put the shop up for sale.

But now she hopes she might be able to save it by selling fewer designer namesand moving a little downmarket.

"Ideally I don't want to move from Knutsford," she said. "It would be a shame to leave some of our regular customers behind."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.