A PLAN to prevent a former pub becoming a supermarket has moved a step closer after planning permission was granted to convert it into three shops and flats.

Campaigners in Crickhowell clubbed together to raise £500,000 to buy the former Corn Exchange pub - a grade II listed building.

They feared had owners Punch Taverns’ original plan to sell the pub to a supermarket chain gone through it would have threatened family-run businesses nearby and destroy the "unique character" of the town which only has one national retailer.

Campaigners formed a company Corn Exchange Crickhowell Ltd and it was granted planning permission for its proposals this week by the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Dean Christy, managing director of Corn Exchange Crickhowell Ltd, said: "This is a giant leap forward. Without planning permission our purchase of The Corn Exchange could not have gone ahead. Now we have it we will seek to complete the sale as soon possible."

The award of planning permission is the latest step since plans to sell the pub were first revealed in March 2015.

Corn Exchange timeline

Then more than 150 people gathered in the town to demonstrate their opposition to its potential sale to a supermarket retailer in March 2015 and a public meeting was also held at the Clarence Hall.

Shopkeepers also staged a two day protest when they boarded up windows to demonstrate what they claimed would be the impact of a national retailer on independent businesses.

After the high profile campaign representatives of Punch Taverns met with the local opponents in May and agreed to put their plans on hold.

In July 2015 a plan for local people and others to buy shares and form a company to buy the building was unveiled. That appeal raised more than £160,000 in its first week.

Investors had pledged sums of between £500 to £30,000 to buy the pub which they hoped could be converted into small shops for independent traders and flats for rent above the shops.

The company was then in position to make a formal offer to buy the building last September an the sale was approved in November last year and contracts were exchanged in January.

The first general meeting of Corn Exchange Crickhowell Ltd was then held in March this year when shareholders backed the plan to turn the empty pub into shops and flats for small businesses and local people.

A planning application was then submitted to the national park in June.

Having secured planning permission it is hoped work to clear the building will start in November and the conversion into three flats three shops could be completed by autumn 2017.