The former owner of a historic bookshop is refunding community members who rallied round in a failed bid to save the local landmark.

The Ibis Bookshop closed its doors earlier this year despite customers pledging about £100,000 to buy its freehold in Banstead High Street.

Former owner Linda Jones said only a handful of cheques were ever cashed and she was in the process of refunding those people.

After the crowdfunding plan failed, the Ibis could not survive in the face of rising rents and competition from online retailers.

Ms Jones then started an online rival to Amazon, called Bookjuice, but did not get enough orders and this business has now closed as well.

She said: "It didn’t pick up. I trialled it for about a month but it wasn’t going to be viable. Unfortunately it was something we couldn’t help and we couldn’t beat Amazon."

The fight to save the bookshop has left her in debt, but she said: "It was a good journey to be on. I have met some wonderful people.

"It was only when I left that I realised just how stressful it was."

Andy Warr, who pledged £100 to save the bookshop early on, said he had been promised a refund but this had not yet materialised.

On Tuesday he told the Epsom Guardian: "I’m beginning to worry now. At first I thought give the girl a chance, she’s been through a hard time and probably lost money."

On Wednesday Ms Jones apologised to Mr Warr for the delay and said she would ring him that evening and refund the money straightaway.

She said: "We closed the business so everything had to go through the banking system. We had to make sure the money was kept separate from the business account.

"I had planned on getting that released by last week, but did not manage to do so."

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Linda Jones in the Ibis Bookshop in December