MYSTERY surrounds the sudden closure of a city centre opticians.

According to some customers, a notice was stuck on the door of Sunbridge Opticians in Sunbridge Road informing customers to cancel any direct debits they have.

One disgruntled customer who contacted the Telegraph & Argus but did not want to be named said his wife had been left out of pocket after money was taken from her bank account for a repeat supply of contact lenses.

He said: “It looks as though they’ve gone bust. They’ve just shut up shop without a word. There must be other people in our situation. It was only earlier this year they they did the whole place out and usually it’s been busy whenever I’ve been in.”

A member of staff at nearby opticians in Ivegate said quite a few people from Sunbridge Opticians had come in for eye tests since it shut, but no one knew why it had closed.

“All we know is that a sign has gone up telling people if they have direct debit orders that they should cancel them,” she said.

And she added: “We have heard that it might be reopening in the New Year but that might just be hearsay.”

There was no notice on the door when the T&A visited. The lights were out, glasses were still on display but post was piling up.

The optician’s facebook page was still up and running but the phone line was dead when the T&A tried calling.

A spokesman for NHS England said Sunbridge Opticians had been in touch with them at the end of October to report it was shutting, but all efforts to contact the business since to find out why that decision had been made, had been fruitless.

“We’ve not been able to contact them to find out what’s happened.

“We need to find out what the situation is but we’re unable to do that.

“Obviously we want to get the message out to people that they can go to other opticians to carry on their treatment or get eye tests.”

General advice is that people should have an eye tests every two years.

The date of the last test is usually on the spectacle prescription along with an indication if a more frequent sight test is advised.

If sight test records have not been transferred to a new optician, they should be returned to NHS England and patients will have to contact them direct to find out if that has happened.

However, opticians can perform a sight test without the previous records. People do regularly go to different opticians for new glasses.

“If patients are on a regular payment plan for contact lenses and if their optician has closed permanently then they will need to contact their bank and stop any regular payments.

“They will also need to arrange for a contact lens review elsewhere and will probably have to pay for a contact lens check with their new Optician,” said a spokesman.

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