A two-year campaign to save a village store and post office is set to end in anger and frustration, with plans being made to convert it into two homes.

When Farnhill and Kildwick Post Office and Village Stores owner Michael Hilton announced his plans to sell up and retire in October 1999, a group of villagers decided to save the business by raising enough cash to buy and run it themselves. They formed a co-operative -- the Farnhill and Kildwick Post Office and Village Shop Association -- which raised money and received cash pledges from residents of both villages.

The Association made an offer in summer 2000 for the property, based on their own independent valuation.

But Mr Hilton, who had said he would sell for £100,000 in November 1999, turned it down, saying it was "£20,000 below" what he had asked for.

He now feels the business is no longer viable because of increasing competition from supermarkets and petrol stations in Cross Hills and the surrounding area.

He added: "It's like everything else. If people don't use it they lose it.

"I've had a lot of very loyal customers, but people who come into the village now don't support the shop at all. We just can't go on any more."

So, feeling the property would sell better as two houses, he has submitted plans to Craven District Council to split it into two, two-bed homes.

But Gary McHugh, of the association, believes the business will be an immense loss to the villages and particularly elderly residents.

He said: "We've been inundated by people wondering what we're going to do. We feel very aggrieved after doing an awful lot of work to raise funds.

"We had sufficient monetary promises to get a substantial deposit down, with the backing of the Ecology Building Society." He added: "We would have made a go of it as volunteers until we got it off the ground and ploughed the profits into the business and mortgage. Surely if we've got an offer still standing they can't get planning permission."

But Craven planning officer Richard Preston said this was not strictly true.

He said a section in the local plan supported village and corner shops

But he said a change of use from retail to residential use would be resisted unless that commercial use was no longer viable.

Mr Preston said there was evidence that the business had lost a great deal of trade over the years and indeed was no longer viable.