Prince's Gate slams shut

THE artist impression of how the store would have looked

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UNDER-pressure retailer Marks and Spencer has pulled out of plans to open a department store at the Prince's Gate development in Oldham town centre.

However it says it is searching for a new site in the area to open a food-only store.

As revealed on the Chronicle website and social media yesterday afternoon, M&S announced it has scrapped plans to open a clothing, home and food store on the current park-and-ride site near the Mumps tram stop.

In a statement, M&S said it informed Oldham Council yesterday afternoon.

The 51,000 sq ft "full-line" clothing, home and food store was due to open in 2018. Instead, M&S said it is searching for a new site with a view to opening a food-only store.

Steve Bennett, director of property for M&S, said: "This is a not a decision we have taken lightly and we understand that both Oldham Council and local residents will be disappointed. However we are modernising and changing M&S for our customers and we believe improving our full line stores in the North-West and opening new food-only stores in the area will better serve our customers and help build the M&S of the future."

M&S said the Oldham announcement did not affect other planned new M&S stores. It said it remained committed to the relocation of its full-line Rochdale store to the Riverside development, which is due to open in 2018.

Earlier this month, M&S announced plans to change its estate of shops across the UK. The plans include opening over 200 new food-only stores by the end of 2018/19 and selling clothing and homewear from 60 fewer stores.

The changes include approximately 30 full-line closures, down-sizing or replacing around 45 full-line stores to food-only stores and opening new full line stores in areas where M&S is under-represented.

M&S and Oldham Council first announced the plans for Prince's Gate in November, 2014, as part of a mixed-use scheme with retail and residential opportunities.

The latest news is a massive blow to Oldham Council which repeated its belief that M&S was coming to Prince's Gate at a full council meeting earlier this month.

At that meeting, councillors heard that tenders for the M&S work were due to be returned to the council shortly. Construction was set to start in September, 2017, with the new store opening in 2018.

However speaking yesterday, leader of the council, Councillor Jean Stretton, pictured below, said: "We are, naturally, disappointed by this decision.

"It's well known that M&S has been experiencing difficulties in a very competitive market and it recently announced store closures as part of a business restructuring.

"When it first informed us of this decision on Tuesday, M&S was clear that although this means it will not be taking retail space at the Prince's Gate site, this does not mean that it is necessarily closing the door on coming to Oldham.

"I want to reassure people that we are continuing to have discussions with them about this and we are hopeful of a positive future outcome.

"The global economic and trade factors affecting M&S at this time are completely outside of our control - and our ambitions for Oldham remain undaunted.

"Rest assured that we will leave no stone unturned to deliver a positive outcome at the Prince's Gate site which complements our wider regeneration programme in the town centre.

"Despite this news, Oldham town centre is firmly on the up and the stunning Old Town Hall cinema and restaurant complex which opened last month is already bringing increased footfall, trade, investment and visitors here.

"We are in positive discussions with several partners to capitalise further on that success."

Oldham now awaits news regarding the future plans for the newly-constructed two-storey car park and the land on the other side of Prince's Gate cleared for a supermarket - currently being used to store materials for the completion of Parliament Square.