A COUPLE who followed their dream by launching their own greengrocers shop have been ‘overwhelmed’ by the support of the community.

Sarah and Darren O’Mahony opened The Greengrocer of Acomb on Thursday. The unit was formerly run by Gary Anderson, 54, of Northfield Lane, Riccall, who was fined more than £9,600 by magistrates in November after the store was found to be infested by rats.

But the shop was completely gutted and redecorated by Sarah and Darren, who said they were handed the top hygiene rating by environmental health inspectors who turned up unannounced on the first day the shop opened.

Sarah said: “It’s just been absolutely mental. We thought we had organised a soft opening but we have had people queueing through the store. We didn’t expect it. Everybody’s been saying Acomb is just buzzing and it’s great to see.

“We get comments about the former owner every day. People have said it was a miserable shop and now it’s a nice place to come. They say it smells like a grocers now, it doesn’t smell like it used to.”

Sarah grew up in York but moved to Norfolk and returned to the city with her husband about a year ago. She said: “We wanted to do something for ourselves. Opening a greengrocers was our dream job. We kept looking for a shop when my mum rang me and told me this one was in The Press.

“We have as little plastic as possible, we use brown paper bags. People like that they can come in and just buy one of something, you don’t have to buy a big bag.”

And the couple have big plans for the future, with boxes of locally sourced fruit and vegetables going on sale and a deli counter about to be installed where customers can buy salads, scotch eggs and sausage rolls as well as soda bread and macaroons.