Marks & Spencer bosses stay silent on future of store in Peterborough's Queensgate Shopping Centre

The clock is ticking on the future of the Marks and Spencer store in Peterborough’s Queensgate Shopping Centre.

Bosses at the retailer had pencilled in April for the store’s closure when they announced three months ago they were consulting with staff over plans to shut the outlet.

The final day of trading was to be confirmed as part of the consultation with workers at the store, which is leased to M&S until 2028.

Since then bosses have kept a public silence on the progress of the consultation and about the number of staff at risk of redundancy with requests from the PT by email and telephone for information being unanswered.

During the same time, M&S representatives have engaged in talks with Peterborough MP Paul Bristow and Peterborough City Council leader Councillor Mohammed Farooq about the possibility of a standalone M&s Food Hall in the city centre.

But it is thought a city centre store would not suit the retailer’s strategy of siting its Food Halls near accessible car parks.

Closure of the Queensgate store would leave M&S with two other outlets in Peterborough – at the Serpentine Green Shopping Centre in Hampton, and at the Brotherhood Retail Park.

Cllr Farooq said: “I’m not really holding out much hope for the store in Queensgate.

"If it does stay open for a few more months that would be great as it would reduce the time between its closure and the arrival of Frasers and help keep the amount of void space to a minimum .”

The closure of M&S would be another blow for the 42-year-old Queensgate Shopping Centre, which saw the departure of its long term anchor retailer John Lewis after the Covid-19 pandemic, quickly followed by the closure of the two-storey fashion chain Next.

It also ran into problems with its £60 million cinema development when its chosen operator Empire collapsed into administration last summer.

However, since then the centre’s fortunes enjoyed a revival when it was announced that retail giant Frasers had agreed to move next year into the space vacated by John Lewis with cinema operator Odeon securing the go ahead to refurbish the Queensgate 10 screen IMAX cinema that sits on the roof of the shopping mall.