News of M&S plans to close its Parkgate store are a big blow to the town and a shock to their committed workers.

M&S is an anchor store for Retail World just as it was in central Rotherham, and I don’t want to see Parkgate start to struggle like our town centre has over the last decade.

79 people now face relocation or redundancy, and this is part of a pattern across the country. Labour research has revealed 100,000 retail jobs have been lost nationally in the last 3 years alone, yet the government has failed to counter the huge overhead costs for high street retailer or act to support our shops.