The futures of about 80 workers at a Bradford discount clothes store are hanging in the balance after it was announced it will close next month.

Next Clearance took over the Broadway premises of C&A in the city centre when it stopped trading last year. In the process the clothes company saved many former C&A staff from the dole.

But the store, which sells clothes and accessories from discontinued Next lines, will open its doors to the public for the last time on Saturday, May 18.

Its staff, both full and part-time, will have to wait to find out if the company offers to relocate them.

The building is part of the proposed £200 million Broadway shopping redevelopment which includes Central House, Petergate, Forster House and Midland Hotel. Many shops on the Broadway complex could be subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order to make way for the new development.

A public inquiry has been held and the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, Stephen Byers, will decide which units are included in the CPO.

His decision is expected in May or June at the earliest.

A Next Clearance spokesman said: "I can confirm that the store will be closing on May 18. There is going to be a redevelopment in that area and we only signed a temporary lease for the property, which has expired. We have taken the decision to move out.

"We will try to offer staff jobs in other local stores, but it's too early to say exactly what the situation will be."

Bradford Councillor Simon Cooke, executive member for the economy, said he hoped Next Clearance had not left the city for good.

"If the CPO is granted for the whole of that area, which would include the old C&A building, then the Council and the developers would be seeking vacant possession so it could be knocked down.

"It may be that Next is pre-empting that situation.

"I hope that the developers will be looking to stores like Next to help rejuvenate that part of Bradford when the new development is completed."

Hundreds queued for the closing- down sale of the Bradford C&A which was opened in 1959 and was only the second store to be set up by the company's founders, the secretive Brenninkmeyer family.

The company pulled the plug on all of its stores in the United Kingdom, but still trades across the rest of Europe.