Look local: Living the Derby dream

‘Derby’s on the up,’ says Dave Mason, dispensing optician and practice manager at Specs Opticians. Mason has lived in the area for a long time and last year took over management at Specs. ‘This practice originally opened as a dispensing-only business in 1986 when the laws were relaxed,’ he says. ‘But since then its developed into a typical opticians that does both testing and dispensing.’

Mason says the store, which is run by him and his optometrist colleague, caters to a ‘good spectrum’ of people, from those seeking budget frames – provided for free to both children and adults via the NHS – to wealthier folk looking for designer brands.