VILLAGERS have vowed to boycott a store chain after it closed the only remaining shop in their isolated community.

People living in Wearhead, Upper Weardale, say they feel let down by the Penrith Co-operative Society following the closure of the village store in Front Street.

Residents began to worry for the shop's future when it closed several weeks ago, but they were assured by the Co-op that the move was just temporary while it attempted to solve a staff crisis.

Now, the company has announced it will not re-open the store because it was losing too much money.

Last night, Weardale county councillor John Shuttleworth said the company had failed the community because it had not been up front with people.

He said: "I think they owe the people in Wearhead an explanation. There are people in this community who have shopped at the Co-op for generations and many of them are members of the Co-operative Society.

"They should have at least come out into the community to inform the people who have been loyal customers for years what they intended to do."

But a Co-op spokesman said the company had wanted to keep the store open, but it was not making any money.

He said: "Over the past three years, the Wearhead store has lost trade to competitors and continues to do so at a rate that can no longer be subsidised by the other stores in the group.

"It is with great regret that the board of directors has decided not to re-open."

The company promised to continue its free home delivery service from its store at nearby St John's Chapel to the whole of Weardale, but one resident, who did not wish to be named, said villagers would shop elsewhere.

She said: "There is talk that people will now refuse to shop there. The shop will be a great loss to the village because it was a centre point of the community."