Crowds formed on Saturday (7 April) as MP for Hemel Hempstead Sir Mike Penning opened a newly relocated opticians – with the help of a magician!

The former shadow minister for health officially opened Specsavers, which has relocated to 252-254 Marlowes, alongside store directors Shane Abbas Bhimani and Daniel Harris.

Sir Mike was joined by local magician Alex who kept crowds entertained with card games and magic tricks, and balloon artist Megan was on hand to make balloon animals for children in store. Disney and Marvel prize bundles were also up for grabs for kids who competed in a colouring in competition with the winners being announced this week.

Sir Mike says: ‘I am delighted to support Specsavers. It is a great example of a business thriving locally and I welcome their move to a bigger store. I wish them well for the future.’

Store director Daniel Harris also welcomed the move to the bigger store. He says: For more than 20 years we have been providing eye health services to residents in Hemel Hempstead and, thanks to their continued support, we have now outgrown our original store.

‘We were thrilled that Sir Mike Penning was able to help us celebrate at the weekend to launch our new store, which is double the size of our previous location.

‘On behalf of the team I’d like to thank everyone who helped to make Saturday such a success.’

The store is equipped with 9 optical testing rooms and 2 audiology rooms. It will also soon boast a state-of-the-art Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanner - an advanced eye scanning system, which is usually only found in hospital eye departments and can help detect eye conditions such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

To book an eye or hearing examination at Specsavers Hemel Hempstead, visit 252-254 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1BJ, call 01442 212 141 or visit https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/hemelhempstead.