Jobs hope if retail giant’s plans approved

The company wants to open a 120,000sq ft store as part of a major consolidation programme which would involve the closure of many of its existing York area stores and a multi-million pound modernisation of its city centre Parliament Street store. M&S’s two current Monks Cross outlets would close as well as the firm’s Piccadilly store.

The plans are part of the Monks Cross scheme including a retail development and a new stadium for York City FC and York City Knights.

The overall project on the Vangarde site, next to Huntington Stadium, would lead to about 750 new jobs and hundreds of construction roles being created.

Oakgate (Monks Cross) Ltd expects to submit a planning application in the next few weeks.

An M&S spokesman said: “We are planning to increase and improve our offer in York as part of the Oakgate Ltd proposal at the new Stadium development at Monks Cross.”

Oakgate is to stage a public exhibition of its plans next week which involve demolishing Huntington Stadium and building a new 6,000-seater arena for City and the Knights, plus community facilities such as an Explore library centre and York St John University’s Institute of Community Sport.

It would release funds for City of York Athletics Club to move to the Sports Village at the University of York and for improvements planned by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The new M&S store would be twice the size of the one in Parliament Street.

Property director Clem Constantine said: “We would very much like to improve our offer in York and the surrounding area and we are delighted to have identified this great site.”

Council leader James Alexander said the new retail development at Monks Cross was essential to making the community stadium scheme happen.