A HAMPSHIRE convenience store is set to re-open – almost three years to the day since it shut for the second time.

Harveys in Main Road, Hounsdown, closed in March 2014, leaving hundreds of residents and schoolchildren without a corner shop and post office.

A financial dispute is said to have been behind the sudden demise of Harveys – the only convenience store in the Hounsdown area.

Now ward councillor David Harrison, who represents Totton South, has revealed that the shop is set to reopen as Masons at the end of March.

Cllr Harrison said: “The new owners intend to run it as a convenience store but not a post office.

“I know the local community will really welcome this news but the most important thing is that people actually use the shop. Let’s not just wish them well but provide them with the necessary business.”

The shop has been at the heart of the local community for more than 60 years.

Its customers include many of the people who live south of the A35, which separates Hounsdown from the rest of Totton, and students from nearby Houns-down School.

When Harveys first shut in the summer of 2012 owner Paul Harvey blamed competition from supermarkets. But Hounsdown residents said it provided a vital service for the large number of people in the neighbourhood who still liked to shop locally.

Almost 60 people gathered outside Harveys in a massive show of support for the business.

It subsequently re-opened after being taken over by another shopkeeper – but closed again in 2014. A notice in the window said Mr Harvey had taken possession of the property.

Speaking at the time Cllr Harrison said the shutdown followed a dispute between Mr Harvey and the family that had been running the shop.

He added: “The store is very important to the residents of Hounsdown. The last time it closed a lot of people backed my campaign to find a new shopkeeper and the publicity no doubt helped in finding someone prepared to take it on.”