STIFF food health regulations have signalled the end of an era at a small general dealer's store this Christmas.

Satisfied customers have bought their turkeys from Oliver's shop, in Hawthorn Terrace, Durham, every year.

But with the surrounding streets, near the city centre, becoming student bedsit-land, custom has dwindled in recent years during the university winter holiday.

Sales of turkeys at Oliver's dropped to less than 100 last year.

The advent of new legislation aimed at preventing food contamination has proved the last straw for present owners, William Pascoe and daughters Valerie Billingham and Pam Davison.

Under the Butchers' Licensing Scheme, introduced on November 1, retailers selling raw meat and ready-to-eat food must be licensed.

The scheme came in the wake of the E-coli outbreak in Scotland, in 1996, in which 17 people died and 500 others suffered illness after eating contaminated products bought at a Lanarkshire butcher's shop.

Shop staff handling meat must now undergo training costing £210 per person, while each outlet requires a £100 licence.

Valerie's husband, Martin, who helps to run Oliver's, said that, given the new regulations, it was no longer worthwhile stocking turkeys.

"For the number of turkeys we are likely to sell, we are not going to go to the expense of putting people through the course and buying the licence," said Mr Billingham.

"We have moved on, and we are doing quite well as a general dealer's business for students.

"But once they go away at the end of term, it gets quiet and we are actually closing in the week between Christmas and New Year.

"As it is, there are so many places selling turkeys, particularly all the supermarkets, that it is just not worth our while."

One regular customer, Durham landscape architect Brian Clouston, said that his family had bought poultry from Oliver's for more than 40 years.

It seemed a shame that the family business's "custom and experience" was no longer deemed satisfactory, he said