THE cost of living crisis has claimed two Watchet businesses which have had to stop trading one after the other.

AMPL Logistics had offered vehicle recovery and ‘man with a van’ services for the past year, covering everything from house and office moves to recycling and garden waste collections, as well as taxi and courier journeys.

But owner Mark Allen found the rising costs of parts and repairs for the vehicles was proving unsustainable and announced on social media last week that he was stopping both.

Instead, he will continue with his long-standing DJ work under the name Allen Audio Events, which over the past 16 years has taken him all over the South West.

Mr Allen, a Watchet footballer, said the recovery truck he had been using failed its MoT and the amount of work required on the vehicle made it unviable.

Then the ‘van’ used for his ‘man with a van’ business repeatedly broke down with repairs costing several thousands of pounds each time.

Mr Allen said: “The business was going well until the economy crashed which hit everybody and we had to put up our prices which of course affected business.

“We are honouring existing customers and we have one person who is doing a house move, but we are not taking on any more.”

Mr Allen said the business closure was announced ‘with a heavy heart’ but the circumstances were out of his control, and he wanted to thank everybody in the Watchet community who had supported him.