Row over claims M&S 'would consider staying in Sunderland' if parking decision is reversed

A letter from Marks and Spencer at the centre of a heated exchange in a Sunderland City Council meeting has been made public.

The retailer is expected to close its outlet in High Street West this spring, when a new 47,000 sq ft M&S opens at The Galleries in Washington.

At a full council meeting on February 28, Sunderland Conservatives' deputy leader, Lyall Reed, revealed the local party had written to M&S about the impending closure, asking them to reconsider.

Tory councillors have linked the closure to the council's decision to end free-after-three parking in the city centre from January 2.

Sunderland Conservatives' leader, Cllr Antony Mullen, said M&S had written to them that: "One of the reasons that Sunderland city centre is not viable for business is because of the council's decision to remove free parking."

His deputy, Cllr Reed, said the parking policy was pricing residents out of the city centre.

He then referred to: "Marks and Spencer saying to us directly that if they (the council) brought back free parking to the city centre, they would consider staying in Sunderland; which is a massive statement for a company to make.

"There is zero public support for bringing back parking charges."

The leader of the Labour council, Graeme Miller responded by challenging the opposition to produce the letter.

Cllr Miller said: "Cllr Reed, I'm going to give you a chance to withdraw your comments about Marks and Spencer, because I'm very tempted to call you are liar.

"But because I'm a gentleman I'm going to just say that the level of misinformation that you've put out about it is staggering.

"If there's a letter, I've not seen it. As far as I'm aware no officer on the council has seen it. So can we see the letter?

"What you've said is a disgrace; and I look forward to getting a copy of your letter after this meeting."

The letter from M&S has now been forwarded to the Echo. It does not specifically mention free-after-three parking, but responded that the company is open to suggestions of opening one of their popular Foodhalls in the city - subject to parking availability for customers.

The letter said: "Whilst it is of course encouraging to hear about the future investment planned in the wider area, I’m afraid we also don’t consider it would be feasible to operate from the same site with just a Foodhall offer for customers.

"However, in addition to the investment in Washington Galleries, we are also open to the idea of a new, accessible M&S Foodhall store in Sunderland in the future, although this would be subject to being able to find a suitable site in the right type of location with car parking for customers."

M&S has declined to comment on the council row directly.

In January the Echo asked Marks and Spencer directly if the High Street West outlet had been making a profit or a loss? They declined to answer.

The retailer said at the time that they had no plans to open a shop at Sunderland's newly revamped railway station.

The Conservatives have recently applied to make the High Street West shop a listed building.