Employing more than 15,500 people across 12 countries, Bookmaker William Hill has announced that it is currently discussing plans to close around 700 betting shops.

The company said it has seen a significant fall in gaming machine revenues.

A spokesperson for William Hill said: "A large number of redundancies is anticipated with 4,500 colleagues at risk. The Group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process."

The closures will begin before the end of the year. A William Hill spokesperson told the Ross Gazette they could not confirm whether the Ross-on-Wye branch would be affected.

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