PEACOCKS is to return on Parkstone’s Ashley Road – six weeks after it was suddenly closed.

The shop will re-open at 9am tomorrow, staffed by six of the branch’s original employees and three from the former Poole town centre store.

The news will be a welcome boost to Parkstone’s high street, which has several other shop units nearby standing empty.

All four Bournemouth and Poole branches of Peacocks were shut at the end of February, with the loss of 49 jobs.

The budget fashion chain had been bought by Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which immediately closed 224 branches with the loss of 3,100 jobs.

The Boscombe branch has since reopened as a Peacocks.

Customers and supporters of the Ashley Road branch had signed a petition in the hope of saving it before February’s job losses.

Philip Day, chairman of Edinburgh Woollen Mill, has said he wanted to reopen 75 of the axed branches and save “as many jobs” as he could.