Co-op store closes next month

The Co-op store at the Meridian Centre in Peacehaven is to close next month.

A sign at the entrance said that the shop would shut for good on Saturday 20 January.

The closure comes with the Meridian Centre about to undergo an overhaul in a scheme that will, first, involve knocking down the existing buildings.

A new Morrisons supermarket is planned to replace the Co-op, with a number of other shops and a new public library.

Our sister site Brighton and Hove News first reported the Co-op’s plan to sell the site in May 2020.

And earlier this year, councillors unanimously approved the scheme for a “comprehensive redevelopment” of the shopping centre.

Brighton and Hove News reported in April that Wm Morrison Supermarkets wanted to replace the Meridian Centre with a Morrisons superstore and 10 smaller shops as well as a new library.

The supermarket chain, Britain’s fifth biggest, said that its new branch would create about 190 full and part-time jobs. It said that the Co-op had 46 staff at the site.

The revamp is expected to create 200 other jobs – up from 60 at present – and Morrisins said that the 390 jobs in all would be worth up to £4 million a year in salaries alone.

The company is also looking to add some housing on the eastern edge of the site at a future date.