Kentish Express Ashford & District
Blow for town centre’
shop to take over.
“I would want to look at whether something could be done with it similar to the Park Mall scheme, with smaller stores sharing services within the unit.
“I’d like to see something that’s maybe a bit different to other towns as the town centre needs to stand out.
“It’s an opportunity to find something different that puts Ashford on the map as a shopping destination.”
Claire Denning, M&S’s head of region for the south east, said: “Proposing to close M&S Ashford was a difficult decision and over the coming weeks we’ll be speaking to our colleagues individually about what is best for them.
“We remain committed to serving customers at our Foodhall on the Warren Retail Park, which offers our clothing and home products via click and collect, and also at our Ashford Designer Outlet store.”
Staff at the town centre store will now be involved in a consultation process.
A spokesman said: “M&S will be speaking to each colleague individually and will work hard to redeploy or offer redeployment to colleagues, and it is expected the majority of colleagues will stay with M&S.”
The spokesman could not say when the store will close. Ashford MP Damian Green says it is “desperately sad” and says hard work will be needed to find a replacement.
He said: “It’s a blow, we have had good news about the town centre and this is clearly bad news.
“I know the council will be doing its best to find an attractive tenant. It will clearly take some time.
“We need to keep working very hard to keep the town centre vibrant.
“There has been a lot of positive steps, like the council buying Park Mall.
“You are constantly having to run as fast as possible to walk forward.”
The M&S announcement came just a day after Ashford Borough Council revealed footfall in the town centre for 2018 to date was up 5.8% on the previous year.
Bosses also said December 2018 footfall was up 27% compared to the same month in 2017.
Cllr Graham Galpin said: “There is a long way to go but we know we are doing something right here in Ashford.”