McDonald's on St Mary Street in Weymouth town centre has closed its doors for good.

As previously reported, the fast food chain revealed last month they would be closing the town centre restaurant toward the end of May.

Dorset Echo: McDonald's on St Mary Street has been bordered up following the closure of the restaurant on Tuesday May 16McDonald's on St Mary Street has been bordered up following the closure of the restaurant on Tuesday May 16 (Image: Tom Lawrence)

In a statement, McDonald's confirmed the restaurant closed yesterday (Tuesday, May 16) and said that staff had all been offered the chance to work at neighbouring restaurants.

A spokesperson for McDonald's said: "We can confirm that our restaurant on St Mary Street in Weymouth will permanently close at the end of next month.

"All of our restaurant crew have been offered the opportunity to be transferred to neighbouring restaurants."

The restaurant is part of four McDonald's owned by local franchisee Chris Truscott who owns and operates restaurants across Weymouth and Dorchester.

Following the closure, Mcdonald's still has restaurants locally at Souter Way and Jubilee Close Retail Park in Weymouth.

A spokesperson for the fast-food chain said: "While we continue to actively grow our estate we do, on occasion, need to consider the future of individual restaurants.

"Sometimes we have to make the difficult decision to close a store, based on a number of factors.

"These can include having opened a new restaurant in the same area 12 months ago."

Melcombe Regis Councillor Jon Orrell said the loss of the popular fast-food restaurant in the town centre was a "wake-up call" to help businesses in the town centre.

Cllr Orrell also called on parking to be made cheaper in Weymouth, after prices of council car parks in the town were controversially raised last week.

He said: "It is a shame to lose such a popular venue in the town centre.

"The town centre is at risk of dying, a lot of the chains are moving to places outside of town which people have to drive to.

"This compromises the town centre and these out-of-town places require people to be able to drive to reach them.

"It is a wake-up call to help other businesses in the town.

"Parking prices in Weymouth being disproportionately high comes as a double whammy when we are already losing shops and businesses.

"We need to challenge the council to make parking the same as elsewhere so that people aren't penalised for coming to Weymouth."