The highly-awaited new Marks & Spencer store in Stevenage is due to open in April - not, as anticipated, in March.

The store on the Roaring Meg Retail Park, which will create up to 150 jobs, will cover nearly 10,000 square metres across two floors and include a foodhall and cafe.

Early on in the project, M&S had said "a new store will be opening in early 2022 - anticipated date March 16, to be confirmed".

With building works to transform the former Debenhams site into the M&S store now at an advanced stage, Marks & Spencer has begun the countdown to opening day.

Posting on Facebook yesterday, it said: "The countdown to opening has started!! 94 days to go!!" By our reckoning, that gives an opening date of April 28.

Marks & Spencer left Stevenage in 2015, saying the town centre store in Queensway was no longer commercially viable.