I don't use it that much and it's almost permanently docked and charging but recently it's been losing charge very quickly , is there anything I can do to recondition the battery . I don't fancy sending it off to Apple as it's not cheap , do Independent shops replace batteries ?

I had a similar problem with my iPod Touch and discovered it was the charger at fault. Round about the same time I had bought a phone that used a USB type charger and I now use that, the iPod works fine again.