A former village shop and Post Office could be converted into living space after the pandemic and a rise in online shopping hit its trade.

The store in Challock, just off Canterbury Road, had been run by partners Angela Puxted and John Ramsden for more than 40 years but closed in August.

The pair – whose house backs onto the shop – have now submitted a planning application to convert the site after failing to find new owners for the property.

"Nobody wants to buy it as it is so we want to make it into a living space for us," she said.

"We tried selling it as a shop but everyone said it was too small because the people that were interested wanted to sell alcohol. It needed more space.

"We’ve owned the shop for more than 40 years and we had the house built 30 years ago.

"There were no problems at all because you were on site – you didn't have to worry about the weather, if it snowed you were here."

In a planning statement submitted to Ashford Borough Council, Mr Ramsden said "changing times and attitudes have beaten us".

"We tried our very hardest to sell it as a village shop," he said.

"The village is served by The Barn Shop which sells everything we did and more as it is much bigger.

"Challock also has a delivery service from Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Iceland and Sainsbury's which are widely used by the villagers – and the new Aldi in Faversham is only 10 minutes away.

"The main reason why the shop has not sold, through feedback from prospective buyers, is the size – 12ft x 24ft – which is no bigger than a normal living room, and no space to enlarge to make it a profitable business."

Mrs Puxted, 81, received a 30 years of service award from the Post Office in 2014.

"A lot of people are disappointed the shop is not there anymore," she added.

"But with Covid, a lot of people didn’t want to go out so they started going online and all the big supermarkets jumped in.

"They still have stuff delivered, so it was a combination of everything."