New M&S store set to open doors
Duke’s praise for collective who wrote letter in 2019
THE wraps have come off a new Marks & Spencer in Solihull – just a year after its construction was announced.
Despite builders having to cope with three lockdowns, the site at Sears Retail Park is still set for lift-off this summer.
The date has yet to be confirmed and it is not expected to be in time for the April 12 target date when non-essential retail businesses can come out of lockdown.
But the good news for shoppers is that the main construction programme has been completed and building contractor Speller Metcalfe has moved off site.
M&S already had a food hall at Sears Retail Park so the new store will be an extension of that following the demolition of the former Homebase next door.
When the announcement was made, the retail world was in a very different place to where it is now.
Back then, Andy Barber, M&S Head of Region for West Midlands, blamed the closure on “changing shopping habits.”
He said: “We’re reshaping our store estate to ensure it meets the needs of customers today – and those of tomorrow. We appreciate this will be disappointing news for some, but we believe this is the right decision to ensure a sustainable future in Solihull and the best possible offer for customers.”
The new store will include a wider
range of clothing and some products than is currently available in Mell Square during non-lockdown periods.
There will also be a cafe as well as the M&S Foodhall taking the total floor space to 82,000 sq ft – or half the size of the 160,000 sq ft Primark store in Birmingham.
The number of car parking spaces for M&S has also increased.
Speller Metcalfe’s regional director Rob Lashford said: “The project team, which includes many trades employed directly from Solihull and the local area, has worked exceptionally hard during a difficult year to complete the new store to shell standard.”
While M&S has been busy redefining its presence in the West Midlands, competitors have been leaving.
John Lewis Grand Central and Bullring’s US giants Forever 21 and GAP have all quit Birmingham city centre in the past 14 months.
BIRMINGHAM MPs Preet Kaur Gill and Shabana Mahmood wrote to the Duchess of Sussex in 2019 to express their “solidarity” and condemn “colonial undertones” in some of the media coverage about her.
They were among 70 MPs praised by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, in his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Ms Gill, the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, and Ms Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, signed a letter sent to Meghan “to express our solidarity with you in taking a stand against the often distasteful and misleading nature of the stories printed in a number of our national newspapers concerning you, your character and your family.”
The letter said: “We are calling out what can only be be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories.”
Valerie Vaz, MP for Walsall South, also signed the letter.
In the interview this week, Meghan spoke about the impact the barrage of negative news coverage had on her mental health.
Harry highlighted the support from MPs, and contrasted it with what he implied was a lack of support from his own family.
He said: “The way that I saw it was, there is a way of doing things, but for us, for this union, and the specifics around her race, there was an opportunity, many opportunities, for my family to show some public support.
“And I guess one of the most telling parts, and the saddest parts I guess, was over 70 members of Parliament, female members of Parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Meghan.
“Yet no one from my family ever said anything over those three years. That hurts. But I also am acutely aware of where my family stand, and
how scared they are of the tabloids turning on them.”
Meghan and Harry said that a member of the family – not the Queen or Duke of Edinburgh – had queried how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.
Birmingham MP Jess Phillips described the revelations about the royal family as “terrible”.
Referring to the family member and skin tone debate, Ms Phillips said: “If they were worried about what would make the institution look bad, I feel they didn’t give it
much thought. This is terrible.”
And Ms Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, hit out at Meghan’s critics, saying: “If your main take is ‘she is lying’, ‘she is an attention seeker’ or ‘I don’t believer her’ believe me when I say women have got used to hearing that, it’s the regular go to. Do better.”
In a short statement, Buckingham Palace said: “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning.
Whilst some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
Prince Charles refused to be drawn on the interview when grilled by members of the public during a public appearance on Tuesday. He appeared in North West London to meet NHS heroes.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, remains in hospital in London having undergone a procedure for a heart condition last week.
ABURSAR at a Solihull school plundered more than £5,000 from a parent-teacher association fund.
Birmingham magistrates told Sarah Kenwick-Moore the case was serious because it was an abuse of trust and that “the victims were children from that school”.
But in sentencing her to 18 weeks suspended for two years they said they had taken into account that she was a mother of a young family and had no previous convictions.
Kenwick Moore, 42, of Wagon Lane, Solihull, who had previously admitted a charge of fraud by abuse of position between September 2018 and September 2020, was also ordered to pay £5,682 compensation and £600 costs. Kenwick-Moore was a trustee of the Daylesford school parent-teacher association and also a bursar and business manager at Olton Primary School which opened in September 2018 and was amalgamated with Daylesford Infant School. In October 2019 staff became aware that £200 had “gone missing” after being withdrawn from a school bank account, said Aqsa Hussain, prosecuting. Investigations revealed there was very little paperwork relating to the Daylesford parent-teacher association.
When quizzed KenwickMoore said she had cashed a cheque for that amount but could not remember why.
She tendered her resignation in August 2020 and when later interviewed she admitted taking money from the parent-teacher’s association fund for her own purposes and had intended to replace it. Miss Hussain said the £5,682 the defendant took had been raised at various events and would have been used to buy equipment. Mohammed Nasser, defending, said that she had accepted her guilt and that it was not a case where anyone else had been suspected. “It was need rather than greed,” he said. Mr Nasser said the financial burden was split between her and her husband and that she was responsible for the upkeep of the household and daily expenses.
“She took out a credit card loan to pay for the expenses and it just gradually spiralled out of control,” he added.
He said she had been seeing her GP and had suffered from anxiety, depression, insomnia, and panic attacks.
“She has learnt a harsh lesson and fallen from grace.”