Customers will be able to pick up milk and bread as well as a pint of beer at Herne Bay’s newest micropub.

Planning officers from Canterbury City Council have given the green light to ambitious plans to transform struggling convenience store Wall Street News and Video.

Owners Claire and Dario Martinez launched a bid to convert the loss-making shop in an attempt to keep the business running. They also want to continue to provide much-needed company to their elderly - and often lonely - clientele.

In a letter to the local authority, Mrs Martinez said: “My husband and I have had many conversations about closing the store, but one thing that has always kept us trying was the continued support of our regular customers.

“Most of them are retired and for some we are the only people they see throughout the day.

“They come in for the social aspect and we want to continue to play an important part in our community.

"We still want to offer our customers the essentials – like bread and milk – and newspapers but we also want to offer them a place to come and sit and perhaps enjoy a coffee or beer together.

“Without this change we are unsure that there will be any future for Wall Street News.”

The couple took over the business in Western Avenue about 14 years ago from Mrs Martinez’s parents, who originally opened it as a film rental store in the 1980s.

But they have been struggling to make ends meet in recent years as their profits have been squeezed by the arrival of Tesco Express and Aldi nearby.

The store has been forced to reduce its workforce and shorten its opening hours.

Mrs Martinez continued: “Our customers come for the conversation and friendship offered by Dario. The idea of a micropub came to us after we visited one and saw how important it was to the community.

'Without this change we are unsure that there will be any future for Wall Street News' - Claire Martinez

“This would give our customers a base to come to, bring people together to feel part of something and hopefully they won’t feel alone.”

Mrs Martinez expects the tavern, which will be called The Lantern, to open in early May.

She will be applying for a licence to sell alcohol at the premises between 11am and 11pm each day and to sell groceries and newspapers from 7am.

The Lantern, with capacity for 40 patrons, will become Herne Bay’s fifth micropub - joining the likes of the Bouncing Barrel in Bank Street, The Firkin Frog in Station Road, and Copper Pottle in Beltinge.

The Butcher’s Arms in Canterbury Road, which was established in 2005, is credited as the country’s first.

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