OWNERS of a newsagents fear they may have have to ‘close for good’ if a planning condition stopping a supermarket from selling newspapers is removed.

Julie MacAdam and her partner Chris Riley, who run Park News in Barrowford, said they were worried that proposals to remove a condition to allow supermarket Booths to sell newspapers over the road will force them to shut.

The pair, who have run the business for two years, launched a petition against the proposal which gained more than 1,300 signatures and was delivered to Pendle Council last week.

The Booths store opened in 2014 and was given a list of planning conditions which were to be abided by to allow the store to go ahead.

Condition three states ‘the retail unit shall not at any time be used for the sale of newspapers, magazines or journals’.

Miss MacAdam, a mum-of-two, said selling magazines and newspapers is a big part of the shops services, which also includes a Post Office.

She said: “This condition protects the shop.

“We are very angry with Booths because they should not be allowed to change this condition because it will have a massive impact on us.

“The worst case scenario would be we could close down for good.

“We’ve had such a strong response from our loyal customers, with thousands of signatures supporting our case and hundreds of objections given to the council.

“We are such a big part of Barrowford, the shop has been here for more than 80 years and I used it for many years before I took it on.”

The original proposals to build the Booths store were lodged in 2006 and were met with several objections from residents and nearby businesses.

Within a planning document, a Booths spokesman said: “The sale of newspapers, magazines or journals would improve the overall mix of
retail goods sold by Booths, clearly for the benefit of customers who use the local shopping centre.

“Booths is not prevented from selling these items under planning conditions at any of their other stores.”

“Booths store provides a comfortable, safe, attractive and accessible shopping environment to contemporary standards.”