Shoppers visiting the Rushden Lakes retail village that opened on the A45 today said they were impressed but would not abandon their local town centres.
The multi-million pound development has combined the likes of House of Fraser, M&S, H&M and Next with a wetland nature reserve and thousands of a free parking spaces.
There is still work to be done on the site. Pizza Express had not moved into its building and there were one or two empty units on the main shopping mall.
Some of the landscaping around the footbridge over the A45 is still to be completed.
On the whole visitors were impressed with the spacious layout and the choice of shops on offer.
House of Fraser was not open but Primark, H&M and M&S were doing brisk business.
Rushden Lakes will effect neighbouring towns` shopping areas rather than the High Street itself, it`s a different thing entirely, but it means that we wo n`t have to schlep out to MK quite so often.