A TOWN centre supermarket is to close next month leaving 45 staff facing redundancy.

The Safeway store in Northallerton High Street will close on September 24. It is one of 600 bought by Morrison's last year for £3bn.

A spokesman for Safeway and Morrison's said the decision to close the branch was made following a review of all the company's stores.

He confirmed that redundancies were likely.

"We value the experience of our staff and will look firstly to redeploy people to vacancies in local stores," he said. "If this is not possible or if no suitable vacancies are available, then the company redundancy policy will apply."

Northallerton mayor David Blades said it was sad news for the town.

"The store is a valuable part of the community and losing it is a big disappointment. Fortunately we enjoy low unemployment in the area and I'm optimistic that employees will find other work in the town," he said.