TALKS have been going on at a senior level in a bid to get Marks and Spencer to reconsider their decision to pull out of Chatham.

The chairman of the Medway Renaissance Partnership, Cllr Rodney Chambers, told the partnership meeting in Chatham Maritime: “We are doing our best to persuade them what the future of Chatham is going to be, and encouraging them to hang on.”

Mark Bradbury, the Chatham regeneration chief, said he had met with Marks and Spencer management.

“Their decision is partly to do with Chatham and the current range of shops in the town, but principally it is to do with losses which go back - perhaps to the creation of the ring road,” he said.

But other retailers are interested in taking over the store premises, he added.

“I hope they will stay, or if they don’t I hope they would come back soon, perhaps in a different format,” said Mr Bradbury.