Plans for a new online ‘click and collect’ service in Accrington town centre could be scuppered by ‘archaic’ half-day trading and ‘hit and miss’ opening hours, it’s been claimed.

Tory councillors said they are supportive of the council’s plans to introduce an online shopping facility into the Market Hall and surrounding area, but warned changes need to be made to ensure its success.

The Observer reported last week how the council had agreed to help fund a £20,000 website allowing shoppers to buy all their goods online and collect them from a pick-up point.

Coun Peter Britcliffe said the town needed to shed its ‘culture’ of halfday trading on Wednesdays. He told a cabinet meeting: “We need to look at national shopping trends. At the moment, while I think half-day closing is archaic, something that belonged in the past, it is my belief that people spend twice as much on a Wednesday as they do on a Monday.

“We need to try and encourage our local shopkeepers to take their halfday on a Monday and do something to boost Wednesday trading.”

Fellow councillor Marlene Haworth said the website would not work without stricter opening times being enforced.

She told the meeting: “While I think it is an excellent idea, I also think for people to use the click and collect, you are going to need places like the Market Hall to have regular opening hours and times of work.

“At the moment it does seem be a bit hit and miss. People open and close when they feel like it and when they have had enough.

“That won’t work. You do need people to be told the hours they are opening, particularly for this scheme to work.”

However, deputy council leader Clare Pritchard described the comments as “obvious” and said things were changing in the Market Hall.

Duncan Allton, who owns All Fruits in the Market Hall, supports the scheme.

He said: “You need to be online nowadays otherwise you just fall behind. “You don’t really have an option anymore because things like smart phones have changed the way people order and shop for their goods.