ONE of the UK’s leading estate agents, auctioneers and valuers has boosted a south Shropshire trust’s campaign to provide affordable housing for locals.

Halls, which has offices throughout Shropshire and the surrounding area, has donated £1,000 to Bishops Castle and District Community Land Trust’s campaign to convert the former Stars newsagent in the town’s Church Street.

The plan is to create two flats for local people and a community shop for pop up businesses, with transformation work expected to be completed this summer.

The trust has launched a £50,000 appeal to bring the building back to life.

It has been empty for six years after the late chairman Bill Bainbridge, who owned the Three Tuns Brewery in Bishops Castle, left the trust £250,000 in his will.

This legacy has been used to repay the bulk of the mortgage on the first two houses built by the trust in Bishops Castle in 2012, in Kings Head Yard, and to buy the Stars newsagents building which needs major renovation work.