THE owners of a Crickhowell pub at the centre of controversial plans for a new High Street convenience store have agreed to meet with protestors who want to save the building for the town.

Punch Taverns has come under intense pressure from Crickhowell residents - who protested outside The Corn Exchange pub, held a mass public meeting attended by 400 people, signed petitions in their thousands and are writing to oppose the plans.

The pub chain had been negotiating with a number of supermarket providers to put a new convenience store on the site – but has now agreed to meet with the newly-formed Corn Exchange Action Group which wants to see the building put to a different use.

Top of the list is turning the pub into an indoor market for local craft businesses which would compliment Crickhowell's high street – which is full of independent family businesses.

David Thomas, who chaired the first meeting of the action group, said: "We are really pleased that Punch is willing to talk. Two weeks ago we were presented with a fait accompli - a pub which they had decided was no longer viable, and a planning application for a convenience store that we were told we could do nothing about.

"Now Punch has given us a seat at the negotiating table – and we welcome that. But that wouldn't have happened if the people of Crickhowell hadn't turned out in such numbers to say they didn't want a national chain in our High Street."

Punch's move came as straight talking businessman Steve Lewis put forward an alternative plan for the Corn Exchange when he called on opponents of the Crickhowell supermarket chain venture to join him in running a community store instead.

And he is putting his money where his mouth is by publicly promising to invest a 'fair share' of the £500,000 which may be needed to finance the independent enterprise.

Steve, an MBE and ex-military hero who runs Black Mountain Ltd - an international business training and development company - said this week, "This sum should allow us to open a proper co-operative indoor food market - one that we deserve in Crickhowell and that would be another magnetic force for our visitors."

And he warned, "Unless we invest, we will decline. Crickhowell has no right to a future. It has to earn it."

He, like most of the townspeople who want to preserve the town's indie reputation, is opposed to Punch Taverns' application to convert the Corn Exchange pub in the High Street into a chain company supermarket.

But he says protesting about it is an impotent way forward.

"My advice to Crickhowell is - step up! Crowd fund the Corn Exchange lease and turn a protest into a positive contribution for the future."

He said, "We should set up a truly local, seasonal and fresh market from the many great local providers in this area and make the High Street the destination to buy the very best on offer in the National Park."

He has already written to Punch in a bid to persuade them to look favourably on a realistic and achievable homespun project.

In a letter to the company's real estate experts last week he said, "I would welcome an opportunity to talk through a win, win, win opportunity for the Corn Exchange which I am sure you and your directors would find an option worth considering."

He tells them he would consider a lease for the Corn Exchange "assuming sound financials could be agreed."

He signs off, "As an existing High Street retailer I am confident I could carry the necessary local support and opinion to create a retail outlet that the town would be proud of for the future."

And he told the Chronicle' "Protests are laudable but usually driven by negative forces - what people don't want. What we don't want is a boarded-up ex-pub surplus to spending habits which is what may happen."

He added: "Success has many fathers - but failure is an orphan."

The vast majority of new small businesses in the town, he reckoned, had been started by people moving to the area.

And the experience for many had been dispiriting because of that old stumbling block, bureaucratic red tape.

'Every single start-up business has had issues," he said, before criticising unhelpful elements in the local political scene.

The newly formed action group however believes that a series of small units could be the best way ahead for the pub site.

A straw poll of the town – conducted at the same time as the protests – showed that people wanted the Corn Exchange to be turned into small units for craft businesses or an antiques shop.

Emma Bevan – who runs a textile art business in the town – said: "Crickhowell could be to crafts what Hay is to books or Abergavenny is to food"

The action group is urging local people to continue to write to Brecon Beacons National Parks Authority to oppose the plans for a convenience store. David Thomas said: "We need to make sure Crickhowell's "No" to a convenience store stays "No" – and give us time to create something which could be a real asset to the town."

The group believes a national chain would drive other family-run stores out of business and undermine the High Street as a tourist attraction – damaging the local economy as well.

A fighting fund is being established to employ expert legal advice if needed and a Trust will be set up to run any new businesses – should Punch agree to lease or sell the building.