THE SPRING sunshine has finally smiled on seafront traders who are relieved to see the balmy weather drawing people to the beach.

The long, miserable winter had left many business owners desperately praying for some sun and pristine sky.

Fortunately, the African heatwave struck British shores this week where some parts of the country went up as high as 26 degrees.

Weather forecasts show today is a partly cloudy and dry 19 degree day, and tomorrow will also be partly cloudy at 14 degrees.

Beach revellers have taken advantage of the weather in the past few days while seafront traders were absolutely delighted to see the seaside filled with happy faces.

Karl Collard, 57, manager of the Grand Junction Cafe, said: “It was wonderful to see the sunshine, we have local and overseas visitors, and college students coming to our cafe.

“I heard it’s going to be bad this coming week, but there’s not much we can do, we can only hope that the weather will improve.

“If we have more sunny weather I will be a very happy chap.

“We just came out of a very dire winter, and the weather does have a big impact on our business. We had a very early Easter, so if we have a slow day we would close at 2pm.

“If it’s bad conditions it doesn’t inspire people to come. But with weather like yesterday, our opening hours can stretch to 10pm or 11pm.

“People don’t necessarily come in for lunch, but they came in to buy light lunches, snacks, cool drinks and ice cream.

“I wish we would have a heatwave like some previous ones. I was at the Fatboy Slim concert, the tickets were all sold out and the beach was so full we couldn’t move.

“For me, I just enjoy it as much as I can whenever the sun is out.”

Jason Bennett, 49, manager of souvenir and jewellery shop Ding Dong Delights, said he was immensely relieved to see the sun.

He said: “The weather has picked up a bit, it’s been quite slow and I’ve seen a lot of people sunbathing.

“Last month wasn’t so great for me. Seafront trade does rely on the sun, or dry weather.

“I still had to open my shop. Whether it’s raining or sunny, I still have to pay rent. We have to carry on and try our best to make the business survive.

“It’s been a long winter, and I am really relieved and grateful that the weather has improved.

“I have been working here since 1995, and usually when we experience a long winter, we would get a long summer. Our business picks up during the school holidays.

“The weather does affect people’s moods. Visitors would come down to the shop and pick up some souvenirs to remind them what a fantastic day they had at the beach.”

Sam Owen, 32, and manager of Brighton Water Sports in Kings Road, said they had been working non-stop as beach lovers queued up to rent swimming and water gear.

She said: “We had a lot of people coming down in afternoon to rent swimming equipment like surf wear and wet suits.

“We have a lot of people who have just finished work and want to come down for a swim.

“We have been busy in the last couple of days. When it’s busy we can have between 70 to 100 customers a day. Sometimes we have very long queues.

“We do open every day, and when we are in the winter season people are less likely to rent swimming gear, but we have triathlon gear.

“We open until 6pm, but if there are a lot of customers we stay open to 7pm.

“Like all the other traders, our business is very dependent on the weather.

“We hope it will be a long summer, we look forward to the summer holidays as lots of students come down for a swim. We have been enjoying the weather ourselves too.”

Owners of Jack and Linda Mills Traditional Fish Smokers said they were thrilled to see warmer weather.

Mr Mills said: “We are very busy whenever the sun comes out. We get a lot of people coming down from offices and we get very long queues.

“We had that very long winter. Easter hadn’t been good for us because no one comes down to the seafront.

“We would close early when there are not many people. We normally close at around 6pm every day.

“For us, May is very good because the weather has settled into spring.

“June is also a great month for us but things pick up even more when it’s school holidays.

“The weather changes all the time so we can’t always be 100 per cent certain. Just take every day for what it is.”