THE imminent closure of Blue Moon Trading will mean another empty property - at least for the time being - in a city centre street already hit by a number of retail closures.

Half a dozen premises were already standing empty in the middle section of Goodramgate yesterday, prior to Blue Moon preparing to shut its doors.

York Retail Forum chairman Phil Pinder, inset, said in March that it was not the number of empty premises in York overall which was concerning but the concentration of them in two key streets, namely Coney Street and Goodramgate.

He said the forum had formed a taskforce with City of York Council, destination management organisation Make It York and York BID, which invests in improvements and enhancements to the centre of York and its businesses, in an effort to fill some of the empty shops.

Make it York declined to comment yesterday but head of business Andrew Sharp has said previously that York has a generally healthy picture for retail.