Sainsbury's has confirmed its Northgate Street supermarket will close at the end of this month.

The September announcement of the planned closure of the store, which has been operating since 1970. sparked online petitions.

But in a letter to Councillor Jeremy Hilton, leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Gloucester City Council who represents the Kingsholm and Wotton and organised a petition which attracted almost 700 signatures, Sainsbury's confirmed the closure would go ahead as planned.

In the letter seen by Punchline, the company said: "We will still be closing this store in January 2021.

"I understand that you may be disappointed by this decision, but it has been underperforming for a sustained period and we believe it would remain loss-making for many years to come."

It continued: "We do not close stores lightly, but to ensure we can meet out customers' needs both now and in the future, we must make difficult decisions like this.

"Our priority now is doing everything we can to find alternative roles within Sainsbury's for those colleagues affected by this closure and the Gloucester community will still be able to shop with us at our other nearby stores."

Councillor Hilton and fellow campaigner Dr Rebecca Trimnell met with a senior representative of Sainsbury's about the store's closure.

Dr Trimnell said the meeting was "constructive" but they were told the branch was likely to close on January 30.

Councillor Hilton said: "We are in communication with Mountcharm Group the owners of the building to keep abreast of their plans to repurpose the building.

"We want to see a good quality grocery store as the next tenants trading off the Northgate Street frontage.

"We understand the first floor will become apartments."