A WAR hero who lost a leg fighting in Afghanistan is facing a new battle to keep his Monmouth business afloat in the face of a huge £11,000 rates rise.

And businesses across the border in the Forest of Dean also say they are facing ruin, with one holiday cottage owner seeing a giant £18,400 a year hike.

Stuart Hale says he will be forced to sub-let half his floor space to try and meet the ‘massive’ bill at his Pegasus Hobbies and Games store beside

Monmouth’s Monnow Bridge.

The 34-year-old former paratrooper became the first amputee in the British Army to return to frontline action in 2008, two years after being blown up by a mine, and came under fire again in the same place.

Three years ago, the ordeal suffered by Corporal Hale and his colleagues was even made into the war movie, Kajaki.

But he says of his new fight: “I’m not a special case, I’m just a shopkeeper trying to keep my business going, but this rise is ridiculous.”

The new business rate bills follow the first UK-wide re-evaluation by the Valuation office in seven years and have seen massive increases for some.

Lynda Searancke, 64, who lets five holiday cottages at her 17th century Sutton Baynham farm in Littledean says her Forest Barn Holidays’ bill has rocketed from £6,600 to £25,000.

“I’ve put every penny I own into this. We’re being absolutely clobbered. I could just about afford it before, there’s no way now. I can’t go on,” she said.

“I saw the Forest of Dean Council, but they say there’s nothing they can do, they’re just collectors. I was crying about it, but now I’m seething.

“I’ve got planning permission for a swimming pool and spa, but this has wrecked everything. I feel like a pigeon that’s about to be shot.”

At the same time, the council says it is already facing a ‘significant level of risk’ of a shortfall in rate payments due to a backlog of business rate appeals before the new regime takes effect, which could further hit collections.

Over the border, Mr Hale is backing a Monmouth traders’ campaign urging the Welsh Government to raise small business rate relief threshold.

“We’re already under attack from online traders, and it’s grossly unfair when the likes of Amazon are getting tax breaks.

“I don’t disagree there should be a rise, but this is massive. My rates are going up from £200 to £1,300 a month – it’s putting the business under huge pressure.”

The rateable value on his store will jump from £9,000 to a whopping £22,000.

“I won’t get any rate relief now, as I’ll no longer be classified as a small business,” said Mr Hale “All of a sudden, none of us are small businesses. It seems daft. The high street will end up being just charity and coffee shops.

“It’s ridiculous that it’s gone up hardly at all in some areas, hugely in ours. It should be a flat rate.”

Mr Hale joined the Paras at 18, and moved to Monmouth in 2014 with wife Shannon and their two children after leaving the army.

“I enjoyed gaming as a youngster, so I set up a business. It’s hard to compete with online traders, so I try to make it different with free gaming, so it’s a bit of community hub,” he said. “I also sell miniatures, mainly military and historical.

“I’ve spoken to Monmouth MP David Davies and Assembly Member Nick Ramsay and other shop owners, and we all agree that we have to fight the rises, but you feel powerless sometimes.”

In 2006, Mr Hale and his 3 Para colleagues became trapped in a minefield when all hell let loose.

“I was stalking a pair of Taliban insurgents when I stepped on a mine,” he recalls. “I was flung through the air and didn’t realise I was injured until I reached for the butt of rifle and my finger was hanging off.

“Then I looked down and my foot had gone and my leg was sticking up at a strange angle, and I resigned myself to die.

“I was conscious all the time, and it was chaos. The Rudyard Kipling lines: “When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains/ And the women come out to cut up what remains/ Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains/ An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier,” were going through my mind, because we dreaded falling into the locals’ hands.

“My colleague, Mark Wright, was fatally blown up then finally after about five hours, the Americans got us out in a Black Hawk (helicopter).

“My last memory was signing a form to have my leg amputated before I awoke six days later in Selly Oak Hospital.

“Coming round was worse, because then the hallucinations and nightmares started. But I was walking again on a prosthetic leg and back with the battalion within three months, which really helped. I really wanted to get back and was the first amputee to return to active front line service.

“I went out to where I got blown up, and we came under fire again there. I thought wouldn’t it be ironic if I die here now.

“It was scary and I had the odd panic attack at night, but it made me realise that it’s just a place like any other. The tour helped me move on,” he added.

“Then the filmmakers sent us their scripts and I put a lot of red pen through the first one, but they really cared about getting it right.

“Kajaki was released on Remembrance Day 2014, the day the UK withdrew from Afghanistan, and I sat thr­ough the premiere thinking it was a great portrayal of what happened.

“They made us a bit more emotional than it was – I wasn’t crying when I stepped on the mine – but it captured the intensity. The film didn’t affect me too much, but I just kept thinking I wish it would end differently.”