A popular County Durham bakery has closed its doors for good after announcing that rising costs and competition from other stores around them has led to the downfall of the business.

Bernies Bakery, on Clyde Terrace in Spennymoor, has been a staple of the town for over five years - but on Monday (July 18) announced that it had closed permanently.

Suspicions about the future of the bakery were brought into doubt on social media on Monday (July 18) when suggestions that the café had closed. 

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This was quickly followed by Spennymoor residents expressing their sadness for the closure - with one person saying: "What a shame. The food from there was lovely," while another added: "Always had fantastic service, so sorry to see a business close."

While there was still no official confirmation of the closure from Bernies Bakery on their social media page, both Google and Facebook said it had permanently closed. 

However, on Monday evening, the bakery put out a comment on the original post, which said that they had made the decision to close last Thursday (July 13).

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The statement read: "Thank you to everyone who has put lovely comments on here. Thank you also to the loyal and regular customers.

"Most of all thank you to the best staff I had who worked above and beyond, especially when things were tough.

"Rising costs and local Competition got the better of us and regrettably the doors closed after 5 great years.

"So people of Spennymoor, support your local shops and businesses because if you don't use them, you lose them."