Popular Edinburgh toy shop at shopping centre hit by constant roadworks announces sad closure

The UK's largest independent toy retailer, The Entertainer, will pull down the shutters on its store at Cameron Toll shopping centre.

A sign on the window of the toy shop says ‘this store will be closing down’ and gives a telephone number for customers to contact if they have any queries.

The Entertainer sells a wide assortment of toys and games as well as scooters, masks, balloons and footballs. The chain's Cameron Toll outlet opened in December 2014, creating 14 new jobs

The reason behind the closure is currently unknown, but the announcement comes just days after drivers in Edinburgh faced long delays and traffic chaos when Cameron Toll roundabout was partially closed – just weeks after it reopened.

The busy roundabout is expected to remain closed until Monday (December 2) due to the discovery of a ‘large void under the carriageway’ that ‘could have caused a collapse of the road above’.

It comes after a section of the roundabout was closed for 12 weeks owing to emergency gas works, before it reopened on November 8.

Earlier this month, The Entertainer toy chain said it has been forced to drop plans to open two new stores after the government said it would raise National Insurance (NI) Contributions for employers.

Chief executive Andrew Murphy told the BBC the higher taxes, announced in the recent Budget, meant it could no longer go ahead with the shops and it had also frozen hiring at its head office.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Murphy said: “There’s no argument with the government’s ultimate goals... simply the balance with which they pursued them.”

He added that The Entertainer, which has 166 shops across the UK and employs around 2,000 people, had chosen two new stores and done viability assessments on them.

“We were just about to initiate the work and unfortunately the changes to National Insurance in particular just tipped that balance so those stores will now not be opening."

The Entertainer has been approached for comment over the closure of the Cameron Toll toy shop.