THE mother and daughter owners of a Fenland camera shop have expressed their disgust at the landlord after a photo booth was installed only metres from their store.

Lorraine Whittaker and her daughter Lindsay Price bought the Kodak One Stop Photo Shop in the Horsefair Shopping Centre, in Wisbech, three years ago but say they now face closure because the new photo booth could take a third of their business.

Landlord NewRiver Retail moved benches and installed electrics to make room for the booth, which was installed on Wednesday.

Mrs Whittaker, of Wisbech, said: “We are both very angry. We feel it is very underhand as we only found out about it two weeks ago.

“There has been no consultation and no negotiation. We put so much into The Horsefair and do so much for it and this is how we are being treated.

“There will be another empty shop now because we are going to go under. I can think of a few people in Wisbech who wouldn’t be happy with that.”

Mrs Whittaker said passport photos account for about a third of the shop’s business and the photo booth will threaten that.

She said: “We came in here after the first recession hit and we did wonders. Now the landlord does this to us.

“After the booth was installed on Wednesday we had two customers come into the shop and described installing the booth as disgraceful. One of them came here to have their passport photo taken.

“We don’t understand why the booth can’t be placed at the other end of the centre.”

Miss Price said she felt like the pair had been stabbed in the back.

NewRiver Rental took over as landlords for the 26-unit shopping centre last year in a �68million deal.

A spokesman for NewRiver Retail said: “We appreciate that the centre’s Kodak store provides a key service and functionality to the centre iand we are always trying to support local businesses.

“The additional photo facility will be available from 6am, which is convenient for those who need photos out of hours.

“We will continue to ensure the Kodak store is offered key opportunities to help drive footfall, it is currently the booking point for the centre’s Help for Heroes Car Boot Sale.”