Shoe Zone is set to close a branch in a seaside town in East Sussex in yet another blow to a UK high street. The store in Bexhill town centre will shut up shop for good today.

The discount footwear chain has 297 branches across the country, but "challenging trading conditions" and rising costs mean some stores are being closed. Bexhill locals have taken to social media to express their disappointment.

One local warned: "Bexhill is turning into a ghost town." Another said: "Wow, I used to visit this store for the kids' shoes. Sad to lose another high street name." A third said: "This is so sad. Soon we'll have nothing left."

The Bexhill branch's site is already on the market with agents Dyer & Hobbis, according to The Sun. The agent is asking £295,000 a year in rent.

Bexhill's loss comes after branches closed in Boscombe in Dorset, Burgess Hill in West Sussex, Watford, Stoke-on-Trent and Inverness.

Shoe Zone has been focusing efforts on bigger and more profitable stores, with new sites having opened in Maidstone and Bristol.

The branch closure in Bexhill is the latest reported retail hit to a UK high street.

The department store, Beales, held a "Rachel Reeves" closing down sale ahead of its closure in Poole, Dorset.

Founded in 1881, the closure of Beale's last outlet was blamed by the company of the Chancellor's "punitive" tax rises.

Ms Reeves has raised employers' national insurance contributions and the minimum wage since Labour swept to power last July.

The British Retail Consortium has estimated the Treasury's hike in employer NICs will cost retailers £2.3billion.

The minimum wage rose to £12.21 an hour from April, while the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 increased by £1.40 to £10 an hour.

Since the Covid pandemic, high street retailers have been feeling the pinch amid a move to online shopping, cost-of-living and energy crises.