ANOTHER major store is to close in York’s biggest shopping street - while a new food shop is to open in premises further along the road.

The Dorothy Perkins and Burton clothing shop in Coney Street is to shut down, just months after the closure of the Wallis fashion shop and Currys/PC World.

The former BHS department store is also still lying empty after closing in 2015.

The next nearest Dorothy Perkins store is at Monks Cross on York’s outskirts.

A spokeswoman for Arcadia, which owns Dorothy Perkins stores, said it would try to redeploy staff from the Coney Street Dorothy Perkins outlet to other stores within the group.

She said it was constantly reviewing its store portfolio across the group, and leases continually expired or came up for renewal.

“We are always looking at how to shape our store portfolio, investing in flagship stores and increasing our brands’ presence online,” she said.

“Our click-and-collect service across the brands is also proving a successful way of helping our customers collect their purchases at a location most convenient to them.

“When leases expire that we do not renew, we endeavour to redeploy staff affected to another store within the Arcadia Group as much as we can.”

The closure news comes as Krispy Creme announced it would be opening a new shop in Coney Street, selling a variety of doughnuts and drinks both in a cafe and as a takeaway.

It said the opening at number 4 on September 27 would take place just under a year after Krispy Creme opened its first shop in York, at the designer outlet at Fulford last October.

Operations director Neil Williamson said: “We’re really excited to be opening up a second store in York.

“As always, the reception from the people of Yorkshire has been fantastic.”

Critics have expressed concern in recent times at the continuing closures of retail stores in York city centre and their frequent replacement by a succession of new restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs.

Andrew Sharp, head of business at the destination management organisation Make It York, said yesterday that as one of York’s principal shopping streets, it was ‘disappointing’ to see the current level of empty shops along Coney Street.

He said York had a highly attractive city centre retail offer, with exceptional quality independents, top name brands as well as quality out of town shopping.

“York continues to be an attractive retail destination and we continue to see strong interest from retailers looking to locate here,” he said.

“We have seen a number of well-known brands open in the city over the past year including Crew, Origins, Sweaty Betty, Sea Salt, Jessops and Primark.”

He said Make it York was actively working to attract new retailers to the city and had also been working with the York BID to support the roll out a window dressing programme on vacant shopfronts in the city centre.

“This is helping to reduce the visual impact of vacant shopfronts and act as an incentive for another business to set up trade in York,” he added.