PLANS to change a village shop into residential accomm-odation were refused this week after councillors heard that the business could still be viable.

A community group in Chillaton is looking into re-opening the shop to benefit the whole community as it was the hub of the village before it closed in March.

But owners Steve and Linda Haigh, who live on the first floor of the shop building, said the profits had dwindled since the full-time post office was closed by Post Office Ltd two years ago.

Mr Haigh told a meeting of West Devon Borough Council's planning committee this week that the loss of the postmaster's salary of £13,000 and the rise in supermarket home deliveries had resulted in a drop in profitability.

'The decision to close the village shop was not taken lightly,' he said.

'In order for the business to be viable we had to have a minimum turnover of £2,000 a week but this dropped to £1,500 and less.

'We were running out of cash and projecting those figures forward we could not see how the business could survive into the near future — let alone the long term future.'

Councillors were told that the property had been marketed in excess of 12 months but was unsuccessful.

Planning officer Ben Dancer said the financial information did not indicate that the business was unviable, even though the profit had reduced, or that there was no prospect of it being viably operated. He said he believed the business could provide 'a living wage' for a single person.

'There is a community hub steering group which demonstrates that at the local level there is still a degree of interest in seeing the services provided by the shop maintained,' he said.

Ward member for Chillaton Bob Baldwin said in a statement the steering group should have the time and opportunity to establish a shop and community centre at the site.