A grandmother has expressed her anger at the sudden disappearance of children's clothing from a leading department store.

Catherine McManus, of Oakfield Road, Ingrow, complains that the children's clothing section in Keighley's Marks & Spencer store is now nothing more than empty rails.

She made the discovery after visiting the store last week to buy clothes for her three grandchildren, aged four, three and two.

She says: "I don't remember seeing any warning notices about the section closing down. I buy an awful lot of things in the store and I will now have to travel further afield to get clothes for my grandchildren. I think it's a great shame."

Ms McManus used to work for Keighley's Marks & Spencer in the late 1980s, in the food department.

Ruth Parker, relief manager at the branch, responds: "The company is currently undergoing a catalogue review which means that rather than offering a small amount of everything, we are now offering a larger range of the most popular items in our smaller stores and letting go of the smaller compartments to the larger stores. So, in our larger stores customers can find departments such as homeware and children's wear. Marks and Spencer has not stopped selling children's wear. It is now only being sold in larger shops."

Keighley shoppers can find a children's wear department in the Pudsey branch of Marks and Spencer.

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