HERITAGE campaigners have started crowdfunding to battle Marks and Spencer's plans to demolish its 1929 flagship Oxford Street store.

M&S hopes to demolish the Marble Arch building, which it says has "asbestos throughout" to create a new 10-storey building with office space and a gym.

A two-week public inquiry in October will assess the merits and detriments of the scheme, as ministers have deemed the plan to be of more than local importance.

Save Britain's Heritage has launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise the £20,000 required for legal fees, with the group planning to argue that the building can be retrofitted rather than completely razed.

In an opinion column for The Daily Telegraph, M&S boss Stuart Machin argued a green light for the plans would help to innovate the West End shopping destination, which is running the risk of becoming a "dinosaur district destined for extinction".

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper