A POUND shop has become the latest casualty in Leatherhead High Street.

The Rainkal store is set to close down next week just a year after opening.

Manager Bharat Thakore, 52, said the main reason for the shop's failure is the High Street being closed to cars during the daytime.

"They close the High Street to cars between 9.30am-5pm," he said. "If you park here for five minutes the warden gives you a ticket. So no-one comes by car, and no-one comes to shop.

"It is a dead High Street. Business hours are noon until three, that's it. People walk here, they're coming from outside in their lunch hour. It is a major problem."

Mr Thakore opened the store with his wife last year, but said the spiralling cost of utilities has forced them to move out of the town.

"It is 99 per cent my bad luck," he said. "For 30 years I had a good business, but this last year has been bad.

"People like a pound shop because in a recession period a lot of people have lost their jobs, they need to survive, so they need to easily buy things for a good rate.

"But if I don't have customers how can I afford my rates, my rent, my electricity bills, my gas bills?

"I am disappointed after investing a lot of money. I have a lot of friends in this street."

Keith Camber, 61, of Poplar Road, said: "It's the first time I have known it to happen. It hasn't been long since it opened.

"There are quite a few empty shops and no-one knows what's going to happen to them."

He added: "They have got to keep the road closed to cars because pedestrians need to walk up and down."