A new initiative to remove barriers to online shopping in Guernsey could devastate the high street, warns a retailer.

Guernsey Post has launched myUKaddress, which provides island residents with a unique UK delivery address for online purchases from retailers that do not currently ship to the Channel Islands.

Martin Search, a director in the Guernsey Retail Group, said island customers “need to shop local” and the scheme “could actually devastate St Peter Port”.

He also said more needed to be done to encourage people to shop locally.

Mr Search, who runs a jewellery shop, said: “If you look at little towns in England, they disappear because it’s easy to shop on the internet.

“Every pound spent in Guernsey stays in Guernsey. It gets spent on the roads, it could be spent on your relatives going into a home. Every pound spent away disappears completely.”

He said: “If we can make it even easier to shop locally then that’s what we need to do.

“Maybe change the opening hours, maybe get people more presence online but we need to look online to Guernsey before we look online to England.”