Cllr McGall and thousands of others signed an epetition on the 10 Downing Street website urging the Governement to help save Woolworths including its branch on Moorland Road from the administrators.

The Governments response to the epetition is below, but the basic answer was that they weren’t repared to do anything to save Woolies:

“The Government fully recognises the important contribution the retail sector makes to the UK economy and the vital role that retail plays in communities across the country. It was disappointing, therefore, to hear that Woolworths had gone into administration.

With the world economy facing downturn, it is regrettable that businesses in Britain will be hit and some will fail. The task of Government is to do all it can to support the economy as a whole, and to back entrepreneurs to build new businesses and workers to find new jobs.

The Government is determined to deliver help viable businesses, with its Real Help business support package delivering vital support for companies throughout the UK.

Nearly £300m of eligible applications from over 2600 small businesses have been assessed, are being processed or have been granted to assist businesses’ lending needs via the Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.

The first £1bn tranche of guarantees to support banks affected by the credit crunch lending to businesses under the £10bn Working Capital Scheme has now been completed.

As part of the Budget, the Chancellor announced a scheme to provide up to £5bn of additional trade credit insurance to businesses which have suffered reductions in their level of cover. This will be delivered as part of the Working Capital Scheme and will help mitigate the cash flow constraints caused by this reduction in cover.”