PLANNING permission has been granted for Cheriton Fitzpaine’s former post office and shop to become part of the house it shares a building with.

The vacant shop is a single room at the front of a four-bedroom house known as Rostadkag. It can be accessed from the High Street and from inside the home.

The post office and shop was run by the current owners of the property, who were forced to close the business in 2016 as it was not financially viable, planning documents say.

After it shut, a community shop was opened in a cabin on land to the right of the former Methodist church. It opens six days a week and stocks everyday essentials as well as newspapers, stamps, cards, fresh vegetables, frozen food and other items. A mobile post office also visits the village’s parish hall twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Mid Devon District Council said that while the loss of the former post office and shop was “regrettable”, it was satisfied it had been “adequately demonstrated that the facility is no longer economically viable and there has been little interest in its uptake as a commercial unit despite a lengthy marketing period”.

Approving the plans, the council described the incorporation of the shop into the dwelling as “reasonable” and the “only logical reuse of this part of the building”.

It added that residential use of the space would be “likely to secure viable use of the building and its future maintenance”.

There will be no external or internal alterations to the building.

Cheriton Fitzpaine Parish Council did not object to the plans, and nobody wrote to the council in support of or objecting to the application.

You can see the application on Mid Devon District Council’s website under reference 25/00300/FULL.

To see more public notices and planning applications, visit: publicnoticeportal.uk.