Following my campaign to get town centre stores to do their bit for the environment and close their doors on cold days when the heating is on, the Body Shop has agreed its Lynn branch will be a test-bed for all its UK shops.

If its trial of a closed-doors policy this month proves a success, Shut That Door orders could go out to all its UK stores.

The Body Shop is the first in Lynn to agree to conserve energy and reduce its envrionmental impact by keeping its shops doors closed when the heating has to be on.

Their spokesman told me: "We are going to trial a closed-doors policy in Lynn within the next month and review its viability."

She said publicity material would be organised to inform customers and support the trial, and said the move would be in line with Body Shop's aim to be carbon neutral by 2010.

She explained that Lynn's Body Shop already uses electricity from EcoTricity's wind-powered generators.

It's great that the Body Shop has seen the obvious sense of not having its shop frontage open to the elements and heating going full blast when the temperature in the street is sub zero.

And it's to be hoped that others will follow their lead.

The biggest concern is the impact closed doors might have on trade, with some suggesting that shoppers are so pathetic that they will not cross the threshold if they have to open the door first.

This argument has even raged here, in the Lynn News, with one of my colleagues who has a serious belief that a closed shop door is a barrier to trade.

He's not the only one: Mr Les Goodwin, of London Road, writes about my "idiotic crusade": "Let me tell Purfleet a few facts of business life; it's not their purpose to save the planet, it is to make money and thrive. Having their doors open draws more people into the shops and that's the way it is."

Mr Goodwin goes on to miss the environmental point by saying: "It is a matter of simple sums – the difference the volume of more people coming through open doors make must far outweigh what they (traders) would save on their fuel bills by having them closed."

Mr Goodwin is also concerned for the look of the street scene should shops not have the security open doors brings of displaying some of their wares outside their businesses.

"The streets would become cold and stark, with everyone closed in their airtight boxes. What a chilling place," he says.

On a more hopeful note he says shops will respond to a groundswell of public opinion, such as increased sales in low-energy electrical goods and supporting reuse of plastic bags. "This is just good business foresight. They have seen the way things go and are catering for it," he said.

Someone else who thinks the Shut That Door campaign is "futile and senseless" is Mr E. Piggott, of Hunstanton.