Residents in Heaton are launching a campaign to save their village chemist shop from closure.

The Heaton Pharmacy at Highgate, which operates from a post office, is under threat from a chemist opening at a new medical centre in Leylands Lane, just half a mile away.

Villagers are concerned that competition from the new pharmacy will lead to the closure of the Highgate shop, which they say is a lifeline for the elderly and the disabled.

Resident Pam Fisher, 49, of Toller Lane, said: "I'm incensed at the decision to grant a contract to another chemist because it could mean the existing one might be forced to close.

"We petitioned long and hard to get one in the first place and the pharmacy has become a lifeline for all villagers in Heaton.

"I'm disabled myself and it's so much more convenient for me to go into the post office, get my disability allowance and visit the pharmacy at the same time.''

Mrs Fisher is now starting a petition and a poster campaign to try and stop the new pharmacy from opening.

Pharmacist Kuram Sheikh, who owns the Highgate shop, now has less than 30 days to appeal to the Health Authority against the granting of the contract.

He said: "I might be forced to close because of this.

"Other shops in the village are also concerned that if I go, they will lose business too because people come and use the pharmacy and then go to other shops.''

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