THE well-dressed women of Kendal will have to look elsewhere for their fashion fix after two ladies shops announced they were closing.

Cerise on Allhallows Lane and Highgate clothes shop Deluxe, have both swapped the latest must-have outfits that normally adorn their windows with "closing down" and "sale" banners.

Gillian Whiteley, who has run Cerise for more than three years, said the decision to leave had been hard but that she had fallen victim to the town's ailing trade.

"The first year I opened people were fighting for the changing rooms but over the past 12 months trade has just got worse and worse," she said.

"Customers often say they can't stop because they have got to get back to their cars and I don't think people are coming to Kendal because they are fed up with the so-called pedestrianisation scheme.

"I've finally decided enough is enough, I can't carry on like this. But I'm very disappointed to be closing, it has always been my ambition to have my own shop."

Mrs Whiteley, who lives in Kendal and is friends with the couple who have run rival shop Deluxe for four years, will be using her retail experience to help husband Robert and son Graham with their new venture Pots and Pine - part of Wetheriggs Pottery in Penrith.