RETAIL bosses are being urged not to be Scrooges and leave disabled people out in the cold this Christmas.

Minister for the Disabled Maria Eagle said: "Christmas shopping can be difficult at the best of times.

"For disabled people negotiating busy shops can be made worse if access is a problem. Since October changes to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) require all service providers to make reasonable physical adjustments to allow disabled people access.

''Disabled people have a right to the same treatment as anyone else when they are shopping. If traders want to make sure business is booming this Christmas they should really think about their disabled customers.

With 20 shopping days until Christmas, businesses are being urged to make sure they are open to the estimated £80bn Britain's ten million disabled shoppers have to spend.

Paralympian Tanni Grey Thompson also urged shops to open up to disabled people and their spending power.

She said: "The attitudes of members of staff in inaccessible shops are improving all the time, but physical access makes life so much easier, and makes it easier for me to spend my money.''

Thompson was among a group of disabled volunteers who carried out a shopping exercise on high streets up and down the country, including her home town of Redcar, east Cleveland. Each went out for a typical morning's shopping and reported back on the types of barriers they encountered.

She said: "With an annual spending power of £80bn, disabled shoppers will take their money somewhere else if they can't get in. Not only will businesses lose out on their money but also that of their family and friends shopping with them."