THE mayor and mayoress will be taking part in a charity trolley dash on Friday when the Port Arcades welcomes its latest retail giant.

Cllr Graham Smith and his wife Ann will be at the Poundland store to make the dash on behalf of the town's SPIDER project, which provides support, social activities and life skills for young adults with learning difficulties.

Bosses at the store have pulled out all the stops to ensure the grand opening will be a fun day for everyone.

Poundland's children's entertainer will be appearing throughout the day and there will be a selection of giveaways on offer, as well as balloons for the youngsters.

The 100th customer at each of the six tills will be the lucky winner of a Mitsubishi DVD player.

But the fun doesn't end there. Bosses have also organised two days of checkout bingo, on Saturday and then on Saturday, May 8.

Between 10am and 4pm Poundland will be giving away Mitsubishi DVD players on the hour and bottles of bubbly half past the hour to those customers lucky enough to be at the till number drawn from the bingo balls.

Suitable prizes will be given to the under-18s.

Poundland is an award-winning 'one price' retailer and offers everything in store for £1.

It sells plants and hanging baskets as well as batteries, pet products, food and drink, stationery, sun and optical glasses, glassware, tools, household goods, toiletries, artificial flowers, giftware, clothing, electrical and audio goods, kitchenware, pictures, toys and textiles.

The Ellesmere Port store will be open seven days a week and is Poundland's 104th store.

Store manager Carolyn Hunt said: 'We have arranged for Poundland's children's entertainer to appear throughout the day and, together with giveaways and balloons, we hope to make it a fun day for the whole family to enjoy.'