SEVENTEEN jobs are at risk after Co-op bosses confirmed that their last remaining branch in the Burnley area is set to close at the end of this summer.

Staff at the retailer’s Briercliffe Road store have been told that the premises will shut as part of a major reorganisation of the Co-operative group.

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And following the demise of the chain’s Padiham store in Burnley Road in June 2014 with 19 jobs axed, the decision brings an end to a 155-year trading tradition in the borough.

Ex-Burnley MP Peter Pike, a local former Co-op director, said he was “very disappointed” at the move, which will have a major impact on the Briercliffe Road shopping centre.

Mr Pike said: “This is very bad news for the staff and their families.

“It is also the last Co-op outlet in the Burnley area.

“I have been a regular customer there since the Padiham shop closed in June last year.

“As a former director of the local co-operative society I am appalled to see this latest decline of what used to be a very powerful local retailer.”

The retailer will continue to operate its branches in Brierfield, Colne and Haslingden and the Co-operative Bank is unaffected.

A Co-operative Group spokesman said: “We can confirm that our food store Briercliffe Road, Burnley, is to close towards the end of August.

“Staff have been informed of the decision, which has been taken with the greatest reluctance.

“It is not, in any way, a reflection on the commitment and hard work of the store team.

“Every effort is being made to redeploy as many as possible of the 17 staff.

“We would like to thank our shoppers for their valued custom over the years.”

Burnley had a number of short-lived co-operative societies in the early years of the movement before perhaps the most recognisable one, Burnley Equitable Co-operative and Industrial Society, was formed in 1860.

Today its imposing old headquarters, dating to 1885 and 1899, still tower over Hammerton Street, though the buildings are now home to everything from bars and takeaways to a martial arts studio.

The Co-operative Group formed gradually over 140 years from the merger of many independent retail societies, and their wholesale societies and federations.

In 1863, 20 years after the Rochdale Pioneers opened their co-operative, the North of England Co-operative Society was launched.