SHOPKEEPERS have won their battle to prevent a Co-op convenience store opening beside a village pub after planners rejected the scheme.

Retailers in Bream had claimed their businesses could be devastated if the new store opened next to the Rising Sun pub.

Family Shopper owner Pauline Hutchence, who helped amass 1,500 names on a petition objecting to the plan, said: “I’m very pleased it has been dismissed, not just for myself, but for the community and the other shops.

“It’s a victory for people power, as there was huge support for our campaign in the village. Obviously, the applicants have six months to appeal, but the highways report into the access beside the pub was very damning.

“A Co-op store could have driven some of us out, and it’s great news that the independent traders will be now able to continue serving the village.

“The big boys can’t just come in and throw their weight around.

“There’s just not enough footfall in Bream to justify a large convenience store moving right into the centre of the village,” added Mrs Hutchence, who opened her shop last December and says she has invested more than £100,000 in the business.

“Hopefully, they won’t appeal, but we’re ready to fight again if they do. There’s been a whole group involved in the campaign and the whole village has pulled together.”

Joint applicants for the proposed 185sq m outlet beside the pub were Medinbrand Ltd and Rising Sun landlords Peter and Jan Coates, who had previously signed a lease deal agreement with the Co-op.

They wanted permission to convert and extend the pub’s former B&B rooms and skittle alley, with 16 parking spaces at the back of the building, and store hours from 6am to 11pm.

But rejecting the plan, Forest planners said the access beside the pub off the village high street, opposite the war memorial, was unsafe, while on-street car parking would add to the hazard.

They also ruled that the single storey flat-roofed extension had “no regard to the scale and character of the original building and represents an incongruous and obtrusive extension.”

Launching her campaign to fight the store plan last month, Mrs Hutchence said: “The Co-op already has stores in Lydney, Coleford and Cinderford and has consistently blocked, undermined and fought against other retailers from opening stores near theirs.

“Well now they’re trying to move in on our village, and they’re going to have a fight.

“The Co-op had their day before abandoning Bream in the 1980s, when they said it wasn’t big enough.

“Well they can’t have it both ways.”

Andy James, who has run his High Street butchers shop near the pub for nearly 30 years, added: “It’s a self-sufficient village, with lovely shops, and I don’t know why we need a supermarket right in the middle of it.

“It’s definitely going to hit my business if it comes here, and the shopkeepers are going to fight this as a team.”