Ines Crucefix, chairman of the Steeple Ashton Village Shop Association, right, with John Aeberhard, outside the building where the shop will be (30767)A SEVEN-year battle for a new village shop has ended in victory as campaigners have secured a grant of nearly £60,000.

Residents in Steeple Ashton are set to swap trips to the supermarket for a store on their doorstep after receiving a grant of £57,697 from the Wiltshire and Swindon Rural Regeneration Partnership.

Ines Crucefix, chairman of the Steeple Ashton Village Shop Association (STASH), said: "We're all thrilled, it's taken eight months to get this grant. The village needs the shop very much. Lots of elderly people find it difficult to get into Trowbridge or Melksham and there are also the young mothers who do not have access to transport."

The store, in the former school building, in the High Street, was given planning permission last year, but the grant means it could now be up and running by the end of September.

The old shop, which was also in High Street, closed in 1998 and concerned residents set up STASH to try to open a new one.

The nearest shop is four miles away, while shopping at the supermarket means an eight-mile round trip.

The association looked at two other possible sites but when the primary school closed last year the grade II listed building seemed an ideal spot.

Parish councillor Rosemary Brett Green, chairman of the school building management committee, said: "We were very sad when the school closed but they say every cloud has a silver lining.

"Everyone in the village wanted to use the building wisely and I think the shop is the most wonderful idea."

The new store will include local produce as well as general groceries and frozen foods. There are also plans for a coffee shop and Internet caf.

STASH is registered as an industrial provident society which means the shop is purely for the villagers and any profits will go straight back into the community.

The association has also been helped by the Village Retail Services Association, which was established to help villages preserve community shops.

As well as the grant, STASH has received £12,000 in donations from villagers anxious to see a local shop restored to the area.

Parish town council chairman Ian van Ryssen said: "I think it has been a great effort from all the people involved.

"It is a great benefit to the village and the grant is really good news, it is a substantial sum which will go a long way towards the necessary conversions and future maintenance of the premises."

The building will also house Bumble Bees nursery and offices for the parish council.

The provisional opening date for the shop is September 30.