Corner shops are back in business

Corner shops are enjoying a renaissance as spiralling fuel prices force shoppers to ditch their cars to walk to their local store, it was claimed today.

The rise of internet shopping and out-of-town superstores had squeezed corner shops to the brink of extinction.

But with petrol and diesel prices higher than in 2010, experts say Britons are leaving their cars at home and walking to their local shop to stock up on essentials, retail experts at research group IGD said.

And with Chancellor George Osborne refusing to lower fuel tax in his next budget and a 3p a litre increase in duty coming in August, they said the trend looks likely to continue.

And community shops in Shropshire say the picture is similar in the county.

Shops in the villages of Cheswardine, near Market Drayton, and Tibberton, near Newport, said they were seeing a return of the days when people popped down the road for a pint of milk and a newspaper.

Last year a shop opened in Tibberton after locals raised the £4,500 needed by selling shares.

Geraldine Stokes-Harrison, a spokeswoman for Tibberton Community Shop, said: "We are seeing people walk to the shop.

"We are delighted that so many people are coming to the shop, including people from outside the village."

In 2010 a community shop opened next to the Fox and Hounds pub in Ches-wardine and is staffed and owned by villagers.

Amanda Parish, chairwoman of the Cheswardine Community Shop Group Team, said: "Obviously it is six miles to Market Drayton to get a paper or some milk, which is why having a local shop is so useful."

Grocery research body IGD says half of consumers will switch to shopping locally if fuel prices continue to rise, causing the £33 billion convenience store industry to soar to £44 billion by 2016.

Richard Hayhoe, managing director of the Mace group of independently owned convenience stores, said: "The massive increase in fuel prices means people are now more inclined to walk round the corner to a convenience store rather than take the car to a supermarket."