Council may take legal action over M&S U-turn

The £100m Rochdale Riverside regeneration project is under threat after Marks & Spencer announced it is backing out of a deal to open a flagship store in the new development.

Rochdale Council chief executive Steve Rumbelow has hinted the local authority may take legal action against the retail giant amid fears the entire project is now in jeopardy.

His statement said: “As far as the council is concerned, Marks & Spencer has a legally-binding agreement to take space in Rochdale Riverside.

“They negotiated a deal as a key anchor tenant and committed to it knowingly and willingly. On that basis, Marks & Spencer should be under no illusion that we expect them to fulfil their legal obligation to Rochdale and the new retail scheme.”

The first phase of the development, which includes about 25 shops, restaurants and cafes, and could create more than 1,000 jobs boosting the local economy by £17m a year, received planning permission in April.

Other firms to have signed up for the scheme include Next and cinema chain Reel, but M&S was the first big name to commit to the scheme and announced plans in November, 2015 to close its nearby Yorkshire Street branch and move to Rochdale Riverside.

But M&S spokeswoman said: “We’re adapting to changing customer habits and this means taking some tough decisions – we’re investing in new stores, relocating stores and, in some cases, closing stores.

“In this case, we don’t believe relocating the store is the right move and have therefore informed the council that we no longer intend to proceed.

“Instead our intention is to continue to serve customers in Rochdale from our Yorkshire Street store and from M&S.com.”