The bosses of a city centre store today said they might quit because of crippling rates and shoplifters snatching £2,000 of clothes a week.

Dave Gibson and Jon Greenwood only set up the Lostboys store last October with their redundancy money from the closure of the city's giant C&A shop.

Now they are threatening to leave the base in the former Brown Muff department store in Market Street and move to a smaller unit in Leeds.

The case has highlighted growing anger among businesses among Bradford over the high level of rates which has led members of the Chamber of Commerce to even consider refusing to pay in protest.

The former C&A managers say although they took out a short term lease on the historic store they would have been prepared to sign up for a further seven years if the running costs were lower - and the thieves stayed away.

Mr Gibson said: "We have had about £2,000 a week lost in shoplifting, but of course, by the time the police arrive they are long gone. We run after them in the street but sometimes it looks as though they have been taking drugs and you have to think of your own safety."

The company has also appealed against the assessment of the store's rateable value to the District Valuer and also asked book giants Waterstone's, which owns the building, for a rent reduction because of the knock-on effect to trade from the Bradford riots.

But Mr Greenwood, pictured, said they had seen a smaller shop in a Leeds arcade which they would probably take on because it had lower rates and the prospect of a better turnover.

Mr Gibson said the business rates of £50,000 a year on the Bradford store were based on £116,000 rateable value.

He added the short-term lease they took out on the property finished next week and they were now clearing the stock.

He said their rent to Waterstone's was approximately the same as the rates valuation, but Lostboys was just breaking even.

Mr Gibson added that the Christmas boom had now ended and it would be Easter before trade went up again.

He said: "We have had tremendous support from the public and very many people were pleased when we moved into this building.

"Unfortunately, we did not get the foot-fall through and we have to think about the future. We aren't prepared to work for nothing."

The historic department store had sat empty for 18 months when the managers ploughed their redundancy money into their new company and took a short term lease for the building.

They took eight redundant C&A staff who had lost their jobs when the Bradford store shut last summer and soon opened both the ground and first floors.

Mr Gibson said the business rates were high because they were based on property values from several years ago.

"It is without doubt the single nail in the coffin for a lot of Bradford businesses."

President of Bradford Chamber of Commerce, John Pennington, said businesses across the city were struggling with high business rates and that a recent meeting had considered staging a strike and refusing to pay. He said: "The strong feeling about this has been a shock, even to me.

"The businesses say they want either a rate reduction or nil increase."

The rates are fixed by the district valuer - working for the Inland Revenue.

A valuation office spokesman said the valuations were done every five years, and the last was in the year 2000.

She said: "When we fix rateable values, we reach a view on what the reasonable rent is. It is based on rent - but the rateable value is not necessarily exactly the rent being charged.

"All rate-payers have a right to contest their rateable value and make an appeal to the valuation office. The case is examined and the business can make a free appeal to the valuation tribunal."

She said she could not comment on an individual case.

Bradford Council's Executive Member for the Economy, Councillor Simon Cooke, said the Council had nothing to do with rent charged by private owners or the level of business rates.

But he said he would do everything he could to help the company.