Another Poundland is to close within just hours, as locals complain about another shop leaving their streets. The location in Oldham is to close for good on Saturday, December 13, becoming the latest stores to be shut down as part of a major restructure being enforced by retailer's new owners.

Sold from Pepco to investment firm Gordon Brothers for £1 earlier this year, Poundland is trying to shed dozens of branches across the UK. Many of the branches affected by the restructuring have launched significant sales to clear their stock, with huge price reductions.

The imminent closure in Oldham has sparked sadness and outrage in the area, with locals commenting online that it was a "sign of the town's decline". Others shared their worries it would be replaced by a HMO or "another vape shop".

Local resident David Johnson described the current state of the shop, the Manchester Evening News reports, claiming the store was already nearly empty before the closure.

He said: "Bare empty shelves, hardly anything left... My commiserations to the staff working there, hopefully they find another job after this."

The Oldham store isn't the only one to close its doors for good tomorrow. The branch in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is also to end trading on Saturday.

The budget retailer will have shut more than 100 shops in the UK by early next year after kicking off its restructuring programme.

Earlier this month, Poundland announced a further 14 stores will be closed by early February, on top of the 19 closures that had already been expected over the coming months.

The retailer had previously announced another 40 shops that were clearing out stock ahead of closure at locations where the landlord of the retail property had chosen to end the lease, resulting in it closing down.

By the end of September, Poundland had already closed down 57 of its its least-profitable shops.

It expects the UK chain to have reduced from around 800 shops at the beginning of the restructuring programme, to between 650 and 700 once the process is complete.

Darren MacDonald, Poundland's UK country manager, said after the latest wave of closures was announced: "We know how disappointing it is when we leave a store, but before we close our doors for a final time, we're determined to say goodbye by offering even more amazing value to customers.

"The special reductions, on top of the value we provide in every store, will help us leave locations we're leaving with pride.

"And when we close our doors, we look forward to welcoming customers to one of the hundreds of Poundland stores we'll continue to operate right across the UK."