AN OXFORD newsagent is to shut next month, leaving its owner “deeply sad” after 36 years of serving Oxford residents.

Saroj Patel, 51, has been working in Amit and AJ News at 254 Cowley Road since 1975, when she was just 16.

But now the shop is closing for good because she said the landlord has given her and husband Bhashker their notice.

Mrs Patel said: “I started in the newsagents straight after leaving school to work with my father in the shop.

“Then I took over the running of the family business.

“I’m deeply sad to go because I have been here a long time now. I have a lot of customers who still come to me.”

Mrs Patel said she had “grown up” with the business and had seen Cowley Road transformed during the five decades.

She added: “There used to be a lot of nice independent shops when I started, like the chocolate shop and the local greengrocers.

“But now they have all gone and more restaurants, off licences and supermarkets have taken their place.

“I think for the person who just wants to run a small gift shop or a newsagents, they can’t survive any more because of the rents and rates. And people expect more from their newsagents now. They want groceries and pay points in the same place, so shops have to provide all this if they are going to survive.”

Asked what she’d miss the most, she said “undoubtedly the customers”.

She added: “I just love serving on Cowley Road. Even though we have a Co-op just down the road, my customers have been very loyal.

“They still always come to me for their morning papers and I know many of them by name.

“I am hoping to get all my customers together in May to have a drink and say goodbye and thank them. They’ve been fantastic.”

The shop will close on April 30 and Mrs Patel admits she doesn’t know what she will do next.

She added: “It will be a fresh start for me. I love to work with people because I love talking and I love serving, so hopefully something like that.”

But there was one advantage to leaving behind the life of a newsagent.

“I’ve worked every Saturday in all those years, so I think I’ll be looking for a job where I only have to work five days, to enjoy some time with my family,” she said.