'SOS M&S': Politicians call on retailer to stay in Peterborough as council leader says talks are ongoing

Marks & Spencer is “vital” to Peterborough, council leader Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted) said as local politicians and civic leaders gathered to call on the retailer to maintain a presence in the city centre.

Cllr Farooq met with cross-party councillors and members of Peterborough Civic Society today (Thursday, 1st February) at Peterborough Cathedral to make a plea to M&S to stay in some capacity.

The company announced last month that it plans to close its store in the Queensgate Shopping Centre on Long Causeway in the next few months, subject to a period of consultation with staff.

Cllr Farooq said that Peterborough City Council (PCC) is “already speaking to M&S and asking them to maintain a good presence in the city centre” as the shop, and particularly the food hall element, is “vital for our city centre”. He added that the council expects to be able to make an announcement shortly.

Andrew Pakes, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Peterborough, said that “it’s brilliant the city council is bringing together civic partners to fight to keep M&S in the city”.

“The real challenge for us is to make sure Queensgate’s owners, M&S and the council sit around the table together and come up with a solution at least to keep a food hall in the city centre,” he continued. “If we lose the food hall, we lose an incredible part of the city centre’s offer.

“We need to create reasons for people to come into the city, not reasons for them to go somewhere else,” he added.

Vice chair of Peterborough Civic Society, Toby Wood, agreed that trying to keep M&S’s food hall in the city centre should be politicians’ priority.

“If the food hall goes then there’s no other food outlet in Queensgate at all,” he said. “It wouldn’t be beyond the wit of man or woman to make sure that actually that food hall could be kept.”

Leader of the Liberal Democrats at PCC, Cllr Christian Hogg (Lib Dems, Fletton and Stanground) added that, with the recent announcement that House of Fraser will occupy the space left when John Lewis vacated in 2021, “we thought we’d finally turned a corner” and “we’d be going in the right direction”.

“With M&S leaving, that could be a really big problem,” he added.

Since M&S’s announcement, a variety of political and civic leaders have called on it to stay, from Conservative MP Paul Bristow to businessman Mike Greene to the Dean of Peterborough, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston.

M&S has said that it's undergoing a period of consultation with staff before closing, which will not happen before April at the earliest.