Marks & Spencer coming to Aberystwyth

Ceredigion Council today played what it hopes will be a trump card in the debate over plans for Mill Street car park in Aberystwyth when it announced that Marks & Spencer is likely to be the second major store to come to the site.

The Council's statement, released late today, says,

"The Council’s preferred developer on Mill Street car park [Chelverton] has negotiated and agreed terms for Marks and Spencer (M&S) to be included in this development opportunity, alongside Tesco. The proposed M&S store will be a full format 54,000 sq ft (gross) variety store comprising 8,000 sq ft net sales convenience (food) and 29,000 sq ft net sales comparison goods (clothing, household goods etc). This agreement has today been approved by the Board of M&S."

Marks and Spencer is intended to go on the land currently occupied by the Park Avenue Day Centre. The Council's original intention, now superceded, had been to place three smaller un-named shops there and this has been the subject of a vigorous local campaign to keep the well-regarded Day Centre on the site.