More than 200 people have signed a petition calling for public seating to be reinstalled inside the Buttermarket Centre in Ipswich.

The appeal was launched by Charlotte Armstrong, a customer assistant at the Boots store in the shopping and leisure complex.

Miss Armstrong said the seating was removed around a year ago while the centre underwent a multimillion pound redevelopment, and was yet to be reinstalled.

“I see a lot of people struggling,” she said. “Elderly people, people with health conditions, mums with young children.

“In the summer, families were sitting on the floor eating their lunch because there was nowhere for them to sit. In the rain and harsher weather there’s no good saying there’s seating outside, people need to be able to shelter.

“It’s been an ongoing issue and it’s quite widely and deeply felt that public seating should be restored to the centre. It must be one of the only shopping centres in the country that doesn’t have anywhere for people to sit down.”

Miss Armstrong, 42, said the petition had been supported by most staff and customers at Boots, as well as other brands in the Buttermarket.

One retail outlet based in the centre found shoppers regularly sitting on its displays, Miss Armstrong added.

A Buttermarket spokesman said: “With the redevelopment of the Buttermarket Centre continuing, we await the opening of the cinema and family entertainment centre in the early part of the new year before finalising any appropriate in-mall seating arrangements.

“We always welcome the views of our customers which will be taken into account in any final decision.”

To support the petition, visit Buttermarket stores Boots, Holland and Barrett, Select or Ipswich Shopmobility.