SHOPKEEPERS in Bream say their businesses could be devastated by new plans to convert part of the village’s only pub into a Co-op store.

They have launched a petition against the proposed 185sq m outlet beside the Rising Sun pub, claiming it could drive out many of the village’s independent family traders.

Pauline Hutchence, of the Family Shopper store, 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. It feels like they’ve had a go at the big boys, and now they’re turning on the little guys.

“But it doesn’t matter who it is, there’s just not enough footfall to sustain another retail store in Bream, and it’s in a dangerous position on the high street, on the brow of a hill on a blind bend, just down from the school.

“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,” added the store owner, who opened her shop last December and says she has invested more than £100,000 in it.

“The application wrongly claims that Bream has one convenience store when it has two, and it will undoubtedly hit my business, Spar, Andy’s Butchers, Sally’s Florist.

“They’re saying it will bring 20 jobs, which I doubt, but that many jobs could go from the village’s independent family traders.

“And when they get delivery wagons blocking the right of way, that’s going to be dangerous, particularly when youngsters are heading to and from school, while the access into the car park is too narrow for a combined store and pub.

“I’ve already got a few hundred names on the petition I’ve taken to village shops, and I’m urging people to sign up and ‘say no to the Co-op’.”

Andy James, who has run his High Street butchers shop near the pub for 29 years, said: “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 and the shopkeepers are going to fight this as a team.”

•Continues on page 23.