M&S has announced that it is closing its Silver Street store in Durham in April. All 48 staff who work at the store will be moving to nearby stores.

The closure is part of M&S’s programme to modernise its UK store estate to better meet the changing needs of customers.

Although the city centre store will close, M&S has a store at the Arniston Centre, which includes clothing, home and food, café, a ‘Click & Collect’ service and 1,400 free parking spaces.

Sacha Berendji, director of retail at Marks & Spencer, said: “We’re committed to transforming M&S for our customers, colleagues and shareholders. Stores will always be an integral part of our customer experience, alongside M&S.com, but we have to ensure we have the right offer in the right locations.

“We believe these changes are vital for the future of M&S and we will continue to accelerate the programme, taking tough but necessary decisions, as we focus on making M&S special.”

Lindsay Austin, M&S head of region for the North East of England, said: “Closing our store in Durham city centre is not a decision we have taken lightly. We value the loyalty of our customers in the area and know that some of them will be disappointed by the news. I’m pleased our colleagues from the store will be staying with us and we are committed to delivering the very best of M&S for our customers from nearby stores.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods took to Twitter.

She posted: "Sad to hear M&S will be closing its Durham City store in April, as this will be further blow to residents, tourists & visitors.

"Vital that Durham remains an attractive location for retailers & I will be meeting with senior officers from @DurhamCouncil tomorrow to discuss this."

As well as Durham, M&S has announced five other stores that will close by the end of April and eight that are proposed for closure.

M&S currently has 1,025 stores – 302 clothing, home and food, 684 food-only and 39 outlets.

The retailer also said that it has "reassessed and reduced" its Simply Food opening programme, and now only plans to open a total of 36 owned and franchise stores over the next six months.

The retailer's woes were brought into sharp focus in its Christmas trading update, when it revealed another steep fall in clothing sales and disappointing festive trading in its food halls as it failed to lure in cost-conscious shoppers.

The high street bellwether blamed a mild October for a 2.8% fall in like-for-like clothing and home sales over the 13 weeks to December 30, while it said "ongoing under-performance" in its food arm left sales 0.4% lower.