Two businesses will find themselves homeless and one will actually close, as their building will be turned into flats.

Judy's hairdressing and Tip Top Dog Groomers operate out of the same small block in Rainer Close in Stratton St Margaret.

The biggest unit in the block used to be occupied by a One-Stop conveniences store, but the owner of the store shut it suddenly in early 2018 and left without notice, leaving rent unpaid to the owners - Devizes company Church Street Properties.

The company has been granted approval to knock down the building and put up eight flats on the site. It told Swindon Borough Council that it had looked for new tenants to take over the shop unity but got no interest, as convenience store operators now want more prominent locations and additions such as petrol stations.

It means Judy's Hairdressing and Tip Top Dog Groomers will have to leave.

Judy Robins has run her hairdressing salon in the close for nearly two decades. She said: "I was told by the landlords that the application had gone through.

"The trouble is we don't know when it's going to happen. We'll stay here until the last day before we have to move, until the bitter end."

"Being here so long we've built up a good client base, who are very loyal, so it is a shame, we'll have to go."

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Judy, 71 said she would probably retire after 55 years in the hairdressing business, and added: "I understand why it's happening. When the shop shut, the landlords did try to get someone in, but nobody is interested.

"We still get people coming here because we've been here so long, but some of the feeling has gone, because it's not so busy, there aren't people coming by all the time."

While Judy will properly retire and her daughter who works with her may take some time out, the other stylists at the shop Scarlet Chollod and James Brown, who have both worked for Judy since they were 16, will be striking out on a new venture as self-employed mobile hairdressers.

Scarlet said: "We'll be carrying on, when the shop shuts."

Nobody at Tip Top Grooming was able to comment.

In a nearby playpark Emma Thurgood was with her young children. She said: "I used to go to the shop quite often just for a few things, it was good to have it there. It's a shame that a useful little centre will go. I think people use supermarkets for everything now. I should have gone to the shop more often I suppose."

No response has been received to calls to Church Street Properties' agent Springfield Design.