A concerned mother’s petition to keep a Mothercare in Harrogate has sparked over 550 signatures from local mums determined that the company should retain a store in the town.
The petition comes on the back of the announcement that Harrogate’s only Mothercare store in the Victoria Shopping Centre has closed.
Concerned Harrogate mum and nurse at Harrogate Hospital, Maria Sibley, collected the signatures online in less than two weeks and is now sending them to Mothercare Chief Executive Simon Calver at the company’s Watford headquarters.
Maria Sibley said:
I ask people to support the campaign to save and bring back our Mothercare which has served this town for at least 30 years.
My mum shopped there when pregnant with my sister even.
As a community I think we need to fight to save our highstreet stores that keep closing.
With Mothercare being the only real child/baby shop where we can get everything we need and also see, touch and try the equipment before we buy it, people are devastated about it’s closure.
We’re just campaigning to bring back a Mothercare to Harrogate.
Local MP, Andrew Jones, has lent Maria his support and has written to Mr Calver calling on him to review the decision to leave Harrogate without a Mothercare store.
Mr Jones commented:
Expectant mothers or new mums have told me that the last thing they want to do is trail to Leeds or York to buy baby essentials. Sometimes it is simply not practical for them to do that.
Many mums I speak to don’t want to order online either as items like prams and cots need to be right for the child and it is difficult to judge that on the internet. And the first time mums and dads particularly value the helpful advice that Mothercare staff give about their products.
So that’s why we need to keep shops which cater for newborns and young children in our area and why I am so disappointed that Mothercare hasn’t yet made a firm commitment to retaining a presence in Harrogate.
I have asked the Chief Executive of Mothercare to look again at their options for Harrogate.
A spokesperson for Mothercare said:
It is unfortunate that the Harrogate store had to close, although we would like to thank all our customers for their support.
We are actively looking for an alternate store location that would allow us to stock the full Mothercare range, much like the stores in York and Leeds currently do.
With such a rapid development in on-line sales, limitations in range that could be stocked and the store not being profitable to operate, it made it the sensible business decision for us to close.
We have also worked with the Victoria Shopping Centre to ensure that the unit wasn’t left vacant andwe are looking forward in having a store back in the area soon.
To get involved with the petition http://t.co/HmVdqf04HT
