Butchers is latest to go

Walter Smith butchers in Market Hall Street is due to close its shutters for the last time tomorrow after negotiations to renew the lease failed.

Nine staff working at the shop found out it was closing last weekend. While three are losing their jobs the rest are being redeployed to other branches.

The shop has been open at the unit for a decade and it will be the first time in 20 years that Cannock has not had a branch of Walter Smith in the town.

Manager Philip Forde, who has been there eight months, said: "The lease is running out in the shop and we have been trying to negotiate a decrease in rent because of the hardship of the times at the moment. But we haven't had any joy.

"The negotiations have been going since before Christmas but have reached an impasse. We found out last weekend they were going to shut the shop but it was quite sudden in the end."

Customers are being redirected to branches in Lichfield and Wolverhampton.

Mr Forde said: "It's just been a disappointment to the staff and we have quite a lot of concerned and disappointed customers who are sorry to see us going. We are still going strong as a business, it's just an unfortunate specific situation with this shop in Cannock."

Black Country butcher Walter Smith was named the West Midlands' top food producer in the Great Taste Awards last year. There are 22 Walter Smith shops in the region including those in Lichfield and Walsall.