The Sunderland Civic Society  are requesting that WHSmith to reconsider their decision to close the existing store at Market Square, Sunderland City Centre.

Bearing in mind that Sunderland is a University City and has a shopping hinterland beyond its boundaries, we, the undersigned, call upon WHSmith , New Holdings PLC and Network Rail to suspend the closure of WHSmith branch of the Market Square branch on 9th December 2015, and renegotiate terms of the lease.  Further, if negotiations prove unsuccessful, we urge WHSmith to relocate to premises elsewhere in the City Centre

In either event, we consider that turnover could be improved  by the company desisting from renting external floor space , to aggressive agencies for charities, which many shoppers find off putting, and reorganising ground floor retail layout to direct customers to the upstairs Stationery Department

The City of Sunderland College is currently constructing a brand new City Campus to the south adjacent to Park Lane Interchange.  The campus will have 2,000 students and 120 staff.  Many of those persons will inevitably wish to shop at a bookshop and stationers at lunch time and before returning home.  The nearest WHSmith will be 7 miles away in South Shields.

There is only a small branch of Waterstones in the Bridges Shopping Centre which is often considerably more expensive for books than WHSmith.

WHSmith has a much more extensive Stationery Department than the smaller branch of Rymans in High Street West, and the Stationery sections in Wilko, Fawcett Street,  Poundland on High Street West  and Tesco Metro in the Bridges Shopping Centre.

The Sunderland Civic Society hope that you would be able to renegotiate terms with New Holdings plc.  It considers that the Landlords will have great difficulty in re-letting the unit to a store of the same calibre if at all.