A Family Finds The Skeletal Remains Of A Baby Boy In A Suitcase As They Clear Out Their Loft

An inquest heard that a family found the skeletal remains of a baby boy concealed in a suitcase while they were clearing out their loft.

The unnamed baby was discovered in the attic of a semi-detached property on Berwick Avenue in Heaton Mersey, Stockport on March 6 last year.

A police investigation, including DNA analysis of the remains, failed to establish the exact time of death but did reveal that it could have occurred as long ago as 1959.

Details of the grim discovery emerged after an inquest was formally opened into the death at Stockport Coroners’ Court on Wednesday morning.

Police coroners’ officer Claire Smith told senior coroner Alison Mutch the identity of the baby hadn’t yet been established, although DNA analysis of the skeletal remains had revealed they belonged to a male infant.

The coroners’ office also agreed that the time of death was unascertained, broadly speaking.

The hearing was told ‘mitochondrial DNA testing’ had been carried out, but that they didn’t think that provided a link to the family that resided there, said Ms Mutch and the coroners’ officer agreed.

The hearing was told that a Home Office pathologist had carried out a post-mortem examination, but they were unable to provide a cause of death.

Ms Mutch said that she thought the family were clearing the address and they found a suitcase within the property in one of the rooms. When they opened it these remains were found in it, and police coroners’s officer Smith said that was correct.

Ms Mutch said it appeared the remains were quite old, and that the range was thought probably dating back to 1959, and Ms Smith agreed.

The hearing was told a police investigation was ongoing. After formally opening the inquest proceedings, the coroner adjourned the case for another hearing on September 26.

Residents in Berwick Avenue expressed their surprise following the hearing. One person said police descended on the property in March last year.

The resident said that the police were there for a few days.

The resident said that the last they heard was that it was a false alarm and that it was just a bundle of newspapers that were found. Obviously, that’s wrong.

Greater Manchester Police said at the time of the discovery, shortly after 11.30 am (6 March 2022), they were called to a report of remains found at an address on Berwick Avenue in Stockport.

They said that the remains were believed to be historical and there was no evidence to suggest that the find links to any other ongoing investigation and that enquiries were ongoing.

Surely somebody must have emptied out the attic space over the 65 years that the body had been there. However, we don’t even know how many owners the house has seen. Perhaps the previous occupants died and left the body there, or anyone who had been living there.

People put things in their loft and just forget about it, although I would guess it wouldn’t be too difficult to forget that you left a dead baby in a suitcase in your attic, and considering the nature of the contents in the suitcase it would have probably been well concealed.

Whatever or however it happened I’m sure there’s an extremely heartbreaking story behind this, and perhaps someone out there knows the truth.

The houses in Berwick Avenue only look like they were built in the late 1970s or 1980s, so perhaps the suitcase was brought to the house by the previous owners.

A 19-Year-Old Woman Who Fought Doctors Who Wanted To Withdraw Life-Saving Treatment Has Died – But Can’t Be Identified

A courageous teenager who was locked in a legal battle with doctors who wanted to withdraw her life-preserving treatment has tragically died, but still can’t be named.

The 19-year-old woman, anonymised by the courts as ‘ST’, can’t be identified because of Draconian reporting rules which have shrouded her heartbreaking case in secrecy.

Her distraught family said on Thursday that even now, in their hour of grief, they continue to be gagged by the court order from saying her name aloud.

They vowed to continue fighting for justice for their fearless daughter to bring what’s been done in the dark into light.

The teenager, who had a rare degenerative condition, died after suffering a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, just days after speaking anonymously to a newspaper outlet about her ordeal from her hospital bed.

Extraordinarily, despite her death, the blanket rules which prohibit the media from identifying ‘ST’ or anything about her and her family or citing the hospital concerned, still stand.

Her devastated parents said that they’ve lost their beautiful and courageous daughter, known to the world as ‘ST’. But to them, she has a real name.

They added that to her family she was everything and that they would cherish and never forget the 19 years they had with her.

They said that the past year had been one of struggle, even torture, for ‘ST’ and her family at the hands of the hospital and the Courts of Protection.

Her family has vowed that her death isn’t the end and said they will continue to fight for ‘ST’s right to be identified and for her full story to be known.

‘ST’ suffered from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, the same condition as that of baby Charlie Gard, whose life support was removed following a painful court battle over his treatment in 2017.

‘ST’ had lived a somewhat independent life before she was hospitalised last year after contracting COVID-19, which worsened her degenerative illness.

The previously outgoing teenager, who enjoyed watching Love Island and coffee with friends, was left reliant on a ventilator, a feeding tube and regular dialysis.

Despite her difficulties, the outstanding straight-A student was determined to live long enough to travel to North America for potentially life-extending clinical trials of nucleoside therapy.

However, ‘ST’ was barred from fundraising for the £1.5 million costs because of the reporting restrictions requested by her hospital when it took her to court to remove her life-preserving treatment in April.

This young woman battled to the very end. She was such a courageous young lady, but this fight needs to continue so that others can’t be treated like this.

Shame on the courts, shame on the politicians, shame on the NHS. Hope her struggles will never be forgotten because the NHS is out of control. Who on earth gave them this much power?

The NHS used every means at their disposal, and no doubt a great deal of public money to prevent this young woman and her family from seeking treatment elsewhere, they must be so proud of themselves. Yes, this young lady was extremely sick, but the NHS are even sicker.

The United Kingdom is turning more and more into a dictatorship. I hate to think what this country will be like in say thirty years’ time, and what has this world come to when a dying teenager isn’t allowed to have the freedom to identify herself or speak freely?

I just don’t understand why the court still has a gagging order, now that this young lady is dead. The parents obviously want to speak openly about their daughter. At least the hospital should be named and shamed and the same goes for the judge who ordered the gagging order. This judge evidently had no understanding or belief in the freedom of speech of an individual.

After Strangling Gabby Petito To Death, Brian Laundrie Sent A Callous Text To A Friend

Brian Laundrie exchanged cruel text messages with a friend days after he choked his fiancee Gabby Petito to death on a cross-country road trip.

Brian Laundrie, 23, killed Gabby Petito on or about August 28 in Wyoming before he took his own life out of guilt and her remains were discovered in Grand Teton National Park on September 19.

However, he sent a string of text messages, seen by The Messenger, to a friend named Ben on September 4 and pretended everything was okay.

‘Trip was good,’ he wrote after he returned home to Florida. ‘Gab and I had fun. Tired now, gonna sleep for a week.’

The exchange of messages between Brian Laundrie and his friend Ben didn’t indicate anything was amiss.

‘We made a lot of content,’ he wrote in relation to the couple’s YouTube travel channel. ‘It was once in a lifetime.’

Gabby Petito spent the summer travelling with Brian Laundrie in a white van, recording their experiences before she vanished.

He returned to his parents’ home in Florida on September 1 without Gabby Petito and her family reported her missing on September 11.

Brian Laundrie was named by police as a person of interest in her disappearance.

Gabby Petito’s strangled body was discovered in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park shortly after.

Before he could be arrested, Brian Laundrie was discovered dead in Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida.

A notebook was discovered in which he admitted to killing her and claimed he did it to end her pain after she fell.

‘I ended her life,’ Laundrie wrote. ‘I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked, I was in shock.’

But days before Gabby Petito’s death, the couple were questioned by police in Moab, Utah after a member of the public contacted 911 and said they’d gotten into a physical argument.

Officers separated them for the night but no charges were filed.

Gabby Petito’s parents filed a $50 million suit against the Moab City Police Department for failing to arrest Brian Laundrie after they discovered Gabby Petito blooded and in distress following a fight days before her death.

The lawsuit cited transcripts of a discussion between a Moab police officer who pulled over the couple after receiving a call from Gabby Petito that claimed she was being attacked by Brian Laundrie.

Clearly, Brian Laundrie was a coward to have taken his own life. He should have owned up to what he’d done and given himself up to the police instead.

He didn’t take his life out of guilt, he took his life out of cowardice because he didn’t want to face the consequences of his actions, and his parents enabled this and they’re just as responsible as he was.

I still can’t believe that his parents got off scot-free. They enabled him, concealed him, deceived and misdirected police so that he could get home, and then pretended they didn’t even know he’d gone.

Brian Laundrie was a violent abuser and Gabby Petito was his prey.

She should have requested or pushed for him to be arrested that day. She definitely didn’t deserve what he did to her. They might have both been fighting with each other, but she didn’t deserve to die either.

She was clearly the victim of narcissistic abuse, and what abusers do is not just immoral, it’s callous and in this matter deadly.

The text to his friend Ben is even further proof that Brian Laundrie felt no guilt, but he knew the walls were closing in on him, and he knew he would never survive prison so he offed himself.

There’s A Possibility That Stage 2 Of HS2 Could Be Scrapped

Rishi Sunak is facing widespread outrage amid claims that the second phase of the controversial HS2 high-speed rail line could be axed to save money.

Ministers have already poured £2.3 billion into the Birmingham to Manchester Phase 2 of the massively over-budget project.

But Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are said to have been told that scrapping it now even at this late phase would save a further £34 billion, money the Chancellor could use elsewhere in his Budget this November.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman refused to confirm that the scheme would eventually reach Manchester. He declined to comment on ‘speculation’ but said the Government was committed to the project as a whole.

The troubled project has been the target of much outrage from environmentalists and Tory backbenchers, with the first stage carving a new route through leafy Middle England.

Earlier this year ministers shelved the development of a central London terminus at Euston under the Phase 1 scheme which links London and Birmingham, instead ending journeys in the suburbs to save money.

The idea that Phase 2, which is divided into two parts, may be binned, first reported by the Independent, has left critics questioning whether it was worth all the cost and the political and environmental damage so far.

Tory MP Michael Fabricant said scrapping Phase 2 would be sensible and would protect rural areas north of his Litchfield constituency, where Phase 1 will join the current West Coast mainline.

He told a newspaper outlet that lovely places south of us were currently being wrecked by HS2, adding that not only would it save £60 billion by the time it’s all finished, but it would also mean you could run a train at about 125mph from Manchester (on the existing line) then it would speed up when it got to the HS2 stretch, which is north of Birmingham anyway.

He criticised the impact of the building programme at Prime Minister’s Questions, saying ending work after Phase 1 could save other constituencies where work is yet to start.

Tory MP Greg Smith, whose Buckinghamshire constituency has been blighted by building work for the scheme, called HS2 to be scrapped. Although £20 billion has been spent so far for the London to Birmingham leg, known as Phase 1, Greg Smith quoted figures compiled by Labour peer Lord Berkeley that suggested losses could be lowered to £8 billion if the land acquired was resold.

This was all a waste of money just to knock a little time off someone’s travel.

They should also knock back 10 billion off foreign aid. Stop spending millions on invaders and cancel HS2.

This has to be the biggest white elephant ever built, and if we’re going to judge the Tories on nothing else, it should be this because the cavalier attitude towards public money is a complete disgrace.

This country never seems to be able to actually build or deliver anything anymore. Our schools, hospitals, and even our government buildings seem to be crumbling around our ears, and the cost of living is incapacitating us.

We don’t own any of our essential infrastructure to deliver energy, water et cetera, and we can’t seem to build a railway line despite throwing billions into it. We can’t even deliver working or reliable navy, army or air force equipment. All we seem to be capable of is giving money to those who don’t even pay a penny into our government coffers, be it foreign aid, or migrants, and this is how our country has become such an utter mess in the last 30 years.

There Is Widespread Criticism Of Tony Blair For His Arrogance

Tony Blair has been criticised after his arrogance today, suggesting junk food is taxed until it’s too expensive for the poor to eat, in a bid to reduce obesity in the United Kingdom.

The former prime minister urged the Government to have a more interventionist approach to public health, with an increase in the sugar tax alongside new levies on foods high in fat and salt, and advertising prohibitions.

He said ministers needed to help create the circumstances in which poorer families choose healthy food and likened the situation to the fight against smoking when he was in No 10, which included a ban on publicly lighting up indoors.

In an interview with the Times, he dismissed concerns about a ‘nanny state’ approach as a ‘minority view’, and said direct action was needed to make Britons take personal responsibility for their health.

But Professor Karol Sikora, a leading cancer expert who’s an advisor to the World Health Organisation, compared the concept to the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) in London, the £12.50 daily green car levy whose expansion has provoked a surge of protest over the summer.

He said that Tony Blair’s arrogance knows no bounds. Who will end up financially suffering? The poor, just like the Ulez.

He said that public health wasn’t purely about bans, taxes and restrictions, but Tony Blair wanted to put out a positive message, encouraging and enabling people to take responsibility for their health.

If they want people to eat healthy, then they should take the not-so-healthy products off the racks and make the healthy products affordable, but of course, they won’t do that.

Tony Blair told the Times that we’ve got to shift from a service that’s treating people when they’re ill to a service that’s focused on well-being, on prevention and how people can live more healthy lives.

He said that you can’t run a modern healthcare system where people are going to live much longer unless they take some responsibility. You’ve got to help them do that, and he said the way of helping them do that, particularly with poor families, was to create the circumstances in which they can choose healthier foods.

This week it was revealed that record numbers of young girls are hitting puberty too soon, with some as young as four, as experts blame obesity as a fundamental factor.

Does this make Tony Blair an egomaniac, just wanting to control people’s lives for his own kicks, and should he be ignored as it does appear that he could be a threat to democracy and normal people’s lives?

The simple truth is that Tony Blair doesn’t care about us. He doesn’t care about our children or our freedoms, welfare or safety. The only thing that he’s interested in is his own power, and to keep expanding it wherever doable.

This is out-and-out communism, and he’s a danger to our society.

Governments are all about running our lives. They’re supposed to support the people but they never do because it’s all about them. Anything to inflate their ego and bank accounts.

To be fair Tony Blair has always been an idiot and a first-class douchebag and will always be.

He lectures about unhealthy food like junk food, but in fact, he’s the junk food of politics. What gives him the right to dictate to anyone what they can and can’t do?

So, the wealthy can be obese, but if you’re poor you have to be skinny. One rule for them and another for us.

Iceland Has Now Joined The Amazon Family!

Thousands of Icelands products will now be available on Amazon after the supermarket brand struck a deal to sell products on the e-commerce giant’s website.

The discount supermarket joins Morrisons and Co-op as a third-party supermarket partner on the Amazon marketplace.

To start with, Iceland products on Amazon will be available to shoppers living in designated postcodes across Greater Manchester, with availability set to be extended to more Amazon Prime members across the United Kingdom in the coming months.

The new partnership will see Iceland’s own label fresh and frozen items, and brands including Greggs, Heinz, Myprotein and TGI Fridays all available to purchase on Amazon.

Items will be sourced straight from local Iceland stores and delivered by Amazon couriers.

An Amazon spokeswoman said that teaming up with third-party retailers they know their customers already love gives them the opportunity to offer customers even more choices and delivery options from their product ranges directly from their website.

Commenting on the decision to sell Iceland products, Amazon said it hoped to offer shoppers all their grocery needs served through one relationship, one app, and a familiar experience.

Same-day delivery of Iceland goods with two-hour scheduled time slots will be free with Prime membership on orders over £60.

However, a delivery fee of £2 for orders will apply on orders between £40 and £60, increasing to £4 on orders between £15 and £40.

A minimum order value of £15 will also be in place.

David Devancy, Iceland’s chief customer and digital officer said that they were committed to helping their customers shop in the way they want and access their great value products whenever they need them most and that partnering with Amazon is yet another way Iceland customers can get their hands on their exclusive brands and freezer favourites.

He added that this was also an exciting opportunity for them to introduce new shoppers to the benefits of shopping with Iceland.

Amazon began involvement with supermarket chains in 2016 when a wholesale supply deal was struck with Morrisons.

This saw the supermarket supply fresh and frozen groceries to customers on what was then known as Amazon Prime Now and Amazon Pantry.

By 2019, the partnership evolved with Morrisons becoming a retailer on the Amazon marketplace, and the following year a dedicated Morrisons online storefront was unveiled.

In 2021, Co-op made 10,000 items available to purchase on Amazon, giving Prime members the ability to do ‘their full Co-op grocery shop’ on the site.

Buying in Iceland was always an affordable alternative to other stores. They were extremely cheap and the food wasn’t that bad, especially for bigger families who have to work on a budget. However, looking around the store recently I have found that their items are a lot more costly now and that some things I can get cheaper elsewhere.

To be honest, I was surprised how much prices in Iceland have actually gone up, and you can already order Iceland products straight from Iceland, so what would be the advantage of ordering through Amazon?

This is the reason why! Eventually, all stores will be online, through Amazon or other couriers. The only difference is that with Amazon you have to be a Prime customer, which means you have to pay to be a Prime customer, in which Amazon make lots of lots of money.

We’re becoming a dystopian society where everything will be done online, with no shops to speak of. Maybe the odd corner shop if you’re lucky and then they will become so costly we won’t be able to afford it.

Our Government don’t want us to have any free will, and they will ultimately have us over a barrel. They will do it gradually so that people don’t notice too much and before long, life as we know it will be a thing of the past.

Campaigners Accuse Government Of ‘Sleight Of Hand’ By Saying Pensions Triple Lock Is ‘Unsustainable’

A minister admitted that the pension triple lock is unsustainable and could be watered down.

In a bombshell move, Mel Stride suggested retirees might not get the anticipated 8.5 per cent rise next year, despite a pledge to keep the state pension at least in line with earnings.

The warning from the Work and Pensions Secretary heightens fears about the triple lock, which has dragged up retirement incomes after years of neglect.

Mel Stride said the Government was committed to keeping the mechanism ‘at the moment’ but insisted it wasn’t ‘sustainable’ in the long term.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner repeatedly declined to say whether her party would commit to the triple lock in its election manifesto, and Rishi Sunak sidestepped questions about whether the Conservatives would do so. Former Tory leader William Hague, who’s close to Rishi Sunak said it was time to ‘unpick’ the triple lock and move to a cheaper system.

The triple lock guarantees that the state pension will increase in line with either inflation, wages or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the highest.

It was introduced by the coalition government in 2010 following derisory increases of as little as 75p a week under Labour.

Official figures revealed that average earnings increased by 8.5 per cent, which is higher than the expected inflation figure, but Mr Stride suggested ministers may strip out the value of bonuses when calculating next year’s triple lock figure, cutting the potential state pension rise to 7.8 per cent and saving the Treasury hundreds of millions of pounds.

The move would hit 12.5 million older people. It would mean that someone on the new state pension would get an additional £15.90 a week next year rather than £17.33, costing them £74 a year.

The basic state pension, paid to millions who qualified before 2016, would increase by £12.18 a week rather than the expected £13.28.

Mr Stride stressed the need for any increases to take into account ‘affordability and the position of the economy’.

But campaigners accused the Government of ‘sleight of hand’.

Dennis Reed, of the campaign group Silver Voices, said pensioners would take a very dim view indeed if the Government starts watering down the triple lock in this way, and that the Government said it was committed to the triple lock, so people don’t expect this sort of sleight of hand to reduce it.

The triple lock isn’t ‘sustainable’ but if you’re a Prime Minister, MP or civil servant then everything is ‘sustainable’. They wouldn’t dream of watering down their salaries – odd that, isn’t it?

If they can’t afford it, then they should stop giving billions away to boat people and Ukraine.

That pension pot was paid into by hard-working people out of their wages. It was paid in good faith that when they reached pension age they would get a state pension. But it’s not really a state pension when you think about it. It’s money that people paid into, knowing that they would get a relatively decent pension when they retired. It’s a bit like putting your money into a bank in good faith for safekeeping and being able to take it out when you need to – what if the banks said ‘No, you can’t do that. We don’t have enough money to cover it’.

It’s people’s money that they paid into a scheme, not the Government’s money, so what have they done with all of that money that wasn’t theirs in the first place? They spent it, that’s what they did!

An 8 Per Cent Rise In Rail Fares Next Year Could Be ‘Eye-Watering’ For Commuters 

Commuters were warned they face being battered by an 8 per cent rise in rail fares next year in the latest blow during the cost of living crisis.

If the Government uses the same formula as this year to calculate the 2024 increase in train fares in England, then passengers are set for an eye-watering hike.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics revealed Britain’s average earnings growth for July was 8 per cent.

This was the measure to which the Department for Transport aligned this year’s cap on fare increases after average earnings growth for July 2022 stood at 5.9 per cent.

Ministers have confirmed next year’s fare increases will be below the Retail Prices Index measure of inflation for July, which was 9 per cent but have not revealed what formula they will use.

If they do push forward with an 8 per cent increase, it will be the highest rise in train fares in England since the privatisation of the rail networks was completed in the 1990s.

An 8 per cent increase in rail fares would see annual season tickets from Woking to London rise by £310 to £4,190.

An off-peak return from Manchester to London would cost £112.20 following an £8.30 hike.

Norman Baker, a former Liberal Democrat transport minister and director of external affairs at pressure group Campaign for Better Transport, said that the Government has yet to confirm next year’s rail increase, but if it follows the same formula as last year and uses today’s average earnings growth rate, passengers would face eye-watering increases.

He said, rather than hammer rail passengers yet again, the Government should freeze rail fares, as they have done with fuel duty until the long-promised ticketing reform takes place.

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said that following last year’s biggest ever Government intervention to cap rail far increases well below inflation, they would continue to protect passengers from cost of living pressures and they wouldn’t increase next year’s rail fares by as much as the July RPI figure.

The spokeswoman also said that any increase would also be delayed until March 2024, temporarily freezing fares for passengers to travel at a lower price for the entirety of January and February as the Government continues with its plan to halve inflation.

About 45 per cent of fares on Britain’s railways are regulated by the Westminster, Scottish and Welsh Governments.

These increases are absurd and yet the Government want fewer emissions on the roads, and they try to facilitate this green policy for all to abide by, yet they want to increase travel – who are they kidding, themselves or us?

If people can’t afford the train anymore, then they will simply travel by car if they have a car, or if their car is Ulez exempt.

If people don’t drive or their car isn’t Ulez exempt, and they can’t afford the train to get to work. What we will see is more people having to give up their careers, or look for work closer to home. If they have to give up their job, there will be more people claiming Universal Credit, which the taxpayer pays for, but if nobody is working and nobody is paying their taxes, who’s going to pay for their Universal Credit? They will then tell you that they can’t afford to pay people on Universal Credit and people will end up living in a dystopian society, under a dystopian Government.

Our entire rail network system is an absolute disgrace, and one seldom gets the service they pay for in advance.

MP Say Dangerous Driving Should Be Punished The Same As Carrying A Weapon

MPs have warned that criminal punishment for unsafe driving should be the same as owning a weapon because cars have the potential to be deadly.

Convictions for unsafe driving can result in a maximum sentence of two years, compared with four years for having an offensive weapon in a public area.

A report by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Walking and Cycling has now called on the Government to bring the penalty for unsafe driving up to four years.

The report said that in addition to being a very useful tool, a car has the potential to be a lethal weapon and that those who drive dangerously were effectively wielding a lethal weapon.

The group, which is led by Tory Selaine Saxbury and Labour’s Ruth Cadbury, said it was too common to hear of drivers who cause death or injury receiving a low sentence or penalty.

They also want to see motorists fined and handed points on their licence if they travel at just one mile per hour over the limit.

Drivers are considered to be speeding if they surpass the limit by 10 per cent plus 2mph.

The MPs also want disqualified motorists to be forced to retake their driving tests before being allowed on the road.

Their report said mandatory re-testing should be widened beyond those convicted of dangerous driving to anyone who’s punished with disqualification.

It argued that re-testing could prove an effective way of keeping dangerous drivers off the roads and protecting other road users.

Politicians spend too much time trying to criminalise the population rather than helping and supporting them. Perhaps politicians should be sacked for breach of conduct and fraudulent expense claims.

Admittedly, cars can be dangerous, but what about cyclists who don’t even know what a red light is for – they just sail through them with no regard to the pedestrians that are crossing the road? Cycle lanes should be banned because they are dangerous to the public and also to other motorists on the road.

Other than cyclists, MPs should quit obsessing about drivers and concentrate on shoplifting, assault and burglary because these are crimes that are perpetrated by thousands every day causing actual fear and distress to their victims but with zero consequence to the criminals.

How many cases are there of people carrying a bladed weapon that gets dropped by the police, or they’re given non-custodial sentences?

What One Man Closes, Another Expands! 

Aldi is eyeing up former Wilko stores and could hire employees from the collapsed chain as shoppers strip shelves bare in the last days before the retailer closes.

Aldi has said it wants to open 500 more stores in the United Kingdom after marking the opening of its 1,000th store in Surrey as part of its ambitious expansion plans, and UK and Ireland chief executive Giles Hurley said it could use former Wilko stores for new sites.

Asked whether it’s looking at ex-Wilko stores, Giles Hurley told a newspaper outlet that with an ambitious target of 1,500 stores, they would look at all the opportunities and that it came down to the availability and suitability.

His comments came as images emerged of the sorry scene in a Wilko store as a handful of customers wandered around the near-empty aisles picking the last discounted items off racks.

The days of Ashford’s Wilko store are numbered, and the scenes inside paint a bleak panorama of its approaching closure after more than 20 years.

Next week it will close its doors, along with three other Kent branches, following the chain’s collapse into administration.

Aldi recently said it was calling for staff impacted by the collapse of retailer Wilko to get in contact as it has about 6,000 jobs presently available across its stores.

Aldi revealed that it’s creating 800 positions in new stores over the coming months and said it hopes to offer these long-term retail roles to those who have lost their jobs as a result of the Wilko downturn, with a range of positions available from Store Assistant and Caretaker all the way to Store Manager.

Long-time Wilko customer Julia Halliday, from Ashford, can recall its days as a supermarket. She said that she’s shopped there forever, adding that she can remember when it used to be Sainsbury’s.

She said it’s been there for so long. Everything in there is good value and she buys all her pet stuff there. The home area is good, so now she doesn’t know where she will go.

She added that it was a nice shop. The staff there are nice and she’s going to miss it being there. She was quite shocked it was closing and very gutted.

Husband and wife Claire and Dave Drummond said the loss of Wilko was a blow for the high street, and that they were guilty of shopping online, but that was another gutting thing with more people out of work.

The good thing is that Wilko stores will be made into other shops and not made into apartments for boat people.

It’s such a shame that Wilko has gone into administration, and I hope that all their staff manage to get jobs elsewhere. I do like Aldi, although I wish we had one local to us. All I can say is that we all need a little bit of help in these troubling times.

However, Aldi appears to have done an excellent deal in cherrypicking some of the Wilko stores.

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