MP for South Leicestershire, Alberto Costa, has invited the Prime Minister to formally open the £168 million Fosse Park West expansion as part of the country’s ‘one-way to freedom’ as announced in the Government’s roadmap for lifting Coronavirus restrictions.
Speaking in the Prime Minister’s statement to the House of Commons yesterday, Alberto asked the Prime Minister to ‘cut the ribbon’ for the new shopping park extension in order to ‘boost consumer confidence across the country’.
The Prime Minister responded, “Non-essential retail can reopen from 12th April, whether I am essential to the opening of Fosse Park I doubt, but I am grateful for the invitation, I am sure that if I cannot get there, then he [Alberto] will do a magnificent job in my place”.
The new £168m Fosse Park West extension is due to open in April later this year, with Waterstones being one of the latest retailers to commit to opening a new store at the site within the Next flagship store alongside others such as H&M, TK Maxx, Clarks, Flannels and Sports Direct.
Alberto said, “I was delighted to invite the Prime Minister to formally open the new Fosse Park extension later this year. Fosse Park is a crucial part of our local and national economy and is so important in providing thousands of jobs for local people, and this new £168m investment is a fantastic boost for South Leicestershire and will help cement Fosse Park’s position as the UK’s flagship out of town shopping park”.
Alberto added, “Following the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday regarding the roadmap for relaxing lockdown measures, I know retail businesses will be eager to reopen their doors from 12th April at the earliest and of course consumer spending at places such as Fosse Park is crucially important for our country’s economic recovery. The people of South Leicestershire I am sure will be delighted that we now have some dates to work toward and look forward to, however we must all keep doing our part in following the guidelines in place and looking after ourselves and others”.
Alberto is pictured above with apprentices at the Fosse Park West site for National Apprenticeship Week last year.
