There has been good news for Leek after the town's McColls survived a nationwide cull of stores.

Amid the sadness of 1,300 jobs at risk nationally following the decision this week to axe 132 McColl's, our town's store has survived the axe.

The one-stop store lives to fight another day, as McColls owner Morrisons insists the convenience chain, which it recently bought out of administration, still has 'strong potential'.

We reported previously how the convenience store chain, which has a store on the junction of Abbott's Road and Novi Lane in Leek, was on the brink of collapse.

But supermarket giant Morrisons swooped in at the last minute to rescue McColl's and its 16,000 staff after the convenience store business went into administration.

The UK's fifth-biggest supermarket chain, which beat the owners of Asda to buy the retailer's 1,164 stores and newsagents after it went into administration earlier this year, said that despite the cuts it believed the business is viable.

McColl's can trace its history back to 1901, when a Scottish footballer, Robert Smyth McColl, opened the first RS McColl in Glasgow.

The modern day company started in 1973 as a vending machine operator, going to purchase convenience store chains prior to concentrating on the retail sector at the start of this century.

"We very much regret the proposed closure of 132 loss-making stores but it is, very sadly, an important step towards the regeneration of the business," said Joseph Sutton, Morrisons' convenience, online and wholesale director.

He added: "We have a great deal of work to do but there's no question that McColl's is a business with strong potential."