A village shop has had to cut its opening hours because it is losing out in the price war with big supermarkets.

It has sparked fears the entire future of Shipton-by-Beningbrough village stores and post office, a vital service for elderly people, could be in jeopardy.

Store owner Mandy Atkins has had to take a new full-time job because she can no longer afford to run the business and has put it up for sale.

Mandy, 36, who lives above the shop and is now a manager of a Fina Service Station at Topcliffe Road off the A19, said: "I just haven't got the money, the shop needs investment.

"I've had quite a few people interested in buying the shop and some of them want to keep it open as a business and I think it could be a success with enough money."

She said the shop would only be opening when the post office was open from next week.

A new relief postmistress was sent in by the post office and it now opens only on Mondays, Tuesday mornings and Thursdays when pensions are paid out.

Mandy's sister, Wendy McGahan and her mother, Mary Witherington, are helping Mandy out by running the shop side of the business while it is on the market.

But Wendy said the number of people using the shop had dropped so much that they were considering opening only when the post office was open.

Now parish councillors have raised concerns of villagers that the post office could be in danger and say it is a vital service for many elderly people in the area.

Wendy said: "We're already closing on Sundays, where Mandy used to open seven days a week and now on the days when the post office isn't open, we only get a customer about every five minutes and they will only buy a newspaper for 35p and that's it.

"Mandy was competing with Tesco, which is open for 24 hours, and people can buy things more cheaply there than Mandy can from the cash-and-carry."

Coun Margaret Ounsely, vice chairwoman of Shipton-by-Beningbrough Parish Council, said: "The parish council is very concerned about this. We do have a lot of elderly people who really need the post office and we've got to keep it open.

"It's a great pity that these village shops are having to close, but supermarkets just price them out.

"I think it could be profitable again if it opened as a newsagents, but many people tend to get their groceries at Tesco."

She said the issue would be discussed at tonight's parish council meeting, when the views of local people would be canvassed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.