A SMALL business at the centre of a legal wrangle with Wrexham Council has served its last customer - for now at least.

Raw Juice on Rhosddu Road, Wrexham, first attracted the attention of Trading Standards officers last year when they were accused of promoting false or misleading health benefits in their juices and smoothies.

After being interviewed under caution on Tuesday last week, bar owners Gareth and Leanne Roberts took the “heartbreaking” decision to close the business after being told there was enough evidence to proceed with a prosecution.

However, the closure announcement has resulted in the couple receiving the overwhelming support of the people of the town, including Cllr Marc Jones, who represents the people of Rhosddu.

Cllr Jones said: “All new businesses are a huge commitment and many fail, despite the best of intentions.

“Small businesses often survive on the hard work, enthusiasm and willpower of those who set it up.

“Leanne and Gareth put heart and soul into it because they believed in promoting healthy food and eating well.

“It was a first in Wrexham and I was delighted to see the old post office, which had also been a gym, turned into a compact but bright and attractive shop on our main road.”

Although admitting he is not exactly the target audience for the business, Cllr Jones said the juices he had tried had been “delicious” and had attracted a small but very passionate and loyal clientele.

He added: “At a time of growing concern about obesity, a crisis of diabetes and unhealthy eating, Raw Juice offered an innovative alternative to the fast-food takeaways in our town.

“Its closure begs many questions about how we as a society can permit fast food restaurants to sell kids unhealthy meals while penalising juice bars using raw fruit and vegetables.”

Despite his comments of support and his hope that Gareth and Leanne will have a change of heart about their decision to close, he stopped short of criticising council staff, who he said “have a job to do and work to regulations that large multinationals can operate within”.

He said: “These regulations can ensnare small enterprises without the big budgets, glossy marketing and slick legal departments of the big chains.

“So we have to think again about how we support small new enterprises, which are the future of our town’s retail sector.”

Wrexham Council has now issued a statement in response to an avalanche of social media criticism about the Trading Standards investigation into the shop’s activities.

A spokesman said: “It is the job of public protection officers to protect the health and wellbeing of residents and to ensure that all food and drink premises operate within the law in order to protect the public from harmful or misleading information, situations or products.

“Our experienced officers operate to consistently high and professional standards and will continue to do so until this investigation is complete.

“The cost of the investigation so far has been grossly exaggerated and there is no basis for the figure that has been reported.

“We ask that officers be allowed to do their job without harassment, either online or otherwise, and that once concluded the matter be reported fairly and with due regard to the facts of the matter.”