MARKS and Spencer is to close its store in Chatham High Street, dealing a severe blow to regeneration hopes for the town centre.

The company says the store is loss-making and this has been so "for a considerable length of time".

The store's 47 staff have 30 days to come up with ways of turning the business around but plans have already been made to transfer them to the Bluewater or the Hempstead Valley M&S outlet at Gillingham when the store closes at the end of June.

Chatham High Street figures strongly in Medway Council's regenerations plans for the area. Chatham is also earmarked to be the principal "city" in the Thames Gateway development.

Medway Council is to meet M&S chiefs in an attempt to persuade them to change their minds about the proposed closure.