PENSIONERS in Maufant who faced the prospect of travelling miles to get their pension can now breathe a sigh of relief after it was announced that the Co-op is to buy the Rstore.
Residents were told just weeks ago that their local store in Grande Route de St Martin would cease trading on 6 July, with the result that the sub-post office it houses would also go.
Ray Cooper, the managing director of CI Newsagents, which owns the Maufant store, had said that business had dropped by 40 per cent since the Five Oaks Checkers Express store had opened. He had originally planned to develop the land for ‘much-needed housing subject to planning permission’.
But the Channel Islands Co-operative Society stepped in at the last minute and put in an offer for the store which was accepted on Monday. Jim Hopley, the Co-op’s chief executive (pictured), said that he had been bombarded with requests from Maufant residents to do something to keep the store open.
