CHESTER has been named as one of Britain's best Christmas shopping cities this year - but excessive car parking charges continue to let the city down.

Those were the findings of research published last week by London-based property consultancy Gerald Eve, which placed the city in 20th position in a festive league table of shopping excellence.

Chester won praise for its history, diverse collection of independent shops and easy road links.

However, researchers warn the city will not grow as fast as Liverpool or Manchester unless its car parking charges are lowered.

The warning comes as Chester City Council proposes to increase parking fees by up to 20p and boost Park & Ride charges next year.

To come up with its retail rankings, Gerald Eve looked at shopping comfort in terms of parking, accessibility and personal safety, quality and quantity of retailers and the amount of fashion shopping on offer across all Britain's leading high streets.

With 43% of the Chester population categorised as 'thriving', the area is said to be above-average affluence.

The city's retailers were sent a Gerald Eve questionnaire earlier this year.

Michael Moran, senior researcher at Gerald Eve, says the city's score for cleanliness was excellent, but said respondents did not rate Chester's parking provision 'at all' well.

'Parking provision is deemed inadequate and accompanying charges excessive,' said the report.

'A failure to tackle parking problems is the major concern. In addition, a number of respondents highlighted any further migration of high street names to out-of-town retail parks as being a key issue.

'Large-scale investment in retail development is needed to expand Chester's offer and recapture a regional role for the city.

'However, a major proviso is that any initiative is carried out in keeping with the culture of the city centre.'

On the positive side, the Rows are singled out, as is the city's Browns of Chester, The Forum, Marks & Spencer stores and The Grosvenor centre. Despite a high number of High Street names, researchers say many smaller retailers in the city have been feeling the pinch of late due to Cheshire Oaks, Broughton Retail Park and Manchester's Trafford Centre.

But researchers are confident the advent of the Northgate Development will transform Chester's fortunes.

Despite some drawbacks, Chester city centre manager Clive Bayley is not surprised by Chester's success.

'I think the reason why Chester stands out is because it has a large number of independent retailers selling hard-to-find presents,' he said.

'It is so compact. You can walk across the city in five minutes. Chester also benefits from having the Rows. Unlike other cities, we go up in two floors. It's double-decker shopping.'