A senior Carlisle city councillor has hit out at the treatment meted out to workers at the city’s BHS store.

It has been confirmed that the hugely popular Primark chain is to take over the building occupied by BHS in The Lanes.

The move is likely to create around 144 jobs but that news has been tinged by sadness for the BHS workers who are now set to lose their jobs at the store in January.

BHS first announced earlier this year that it would close its store in Carlisle but later changed its mind saying it planned to keep its prominent city centre outlet open. The news last week that it was to shut to make way for Primark came as a blow to its workers.

Carlisle City Council’s deputy leader Elsie Martlew said she had been appalled at the way those staff have been treated.

She said: “They were told a couple of months ago that they were being made redundant and then there was a turnaround with BHS saying they would continue to run the store in Carlisle.

“But staff were told yet again that they are going to lose their jobs. It seems to me that BHS management don’t know how to treat people decently.

“It looks to me like there has been an internal squabble within BHS.

“The staff at the Carlisle store deserve more than an apology for this.

“On the plus side we’re getting Primark and I’d hope that they will give the staff at BHS first refusal on the jobs that will be created. BHS has been a good shop.”

She added that the city council had worked hard in recent years to attract big name retailers, saying she hoped the arrival of Primark would encourage others to follow.

A BHS spokeswoman told the News & Star: “We are consulting with colleagues about the closure of our store in Carlisle early next year and are doing all we can to try to find our colleagues new roles in other stores.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal customers and colleagues in Carlisle for their support over the years and hope to return to the city one day.”

Meanwhile, there has been a hugely positive response to the news that Primark will open in the BHS store next winter.

Viv Dodd, secretary of the Carlisle City Centre Business Group, said he expected the store to act as a magnet for ardent shoppers who are now more likely to flock to the city centre. “For whatever reason it seems to be popular,” he said.

The News & Star has taken several calls from BHS workers devastated at the closure of the store. Some had got new jobs when it first emerged that BHS could close but stayed with the company “out of loyalty” when it was thought it may remain open.