THE Village Hall Committee at Bridgerule has welcomed the new Post Office which opened in the premises on Monday.

Bridgerule has been without a Post Office for more than 12 months but all the Post Office services at the old shop, from electric key charging to stamps, are now available again.

The service is a 'Hosted Outreach' where a neighbouring postmaster visits the hall twice a week to provide a range of services.

It comes under the main Post Office in Kilkhampton and postmaster Ian Croxton came along to get things under way.

To celebrate the occasion Sheila Cholwill and Rose Hitchings provided refreshments and the afternoon was a great success with a steady flow of customers using a wide range of services.

The new service is 150 metres from the former Post Office branch, at Bridgerule Stores, which closed temporarily in January 2014 for operational reasons.

The opening hours are from 12.30pm to 4.30pm on Mondays and from 9.30am to 1.30pm on Wednesdays.

Cliff Seymour-Smith, chairman of Bridgerule Village Hall, said: "We appeal to the people of Bridgerule to please, please, please show your support.

"We are extremely lucky to be given a second chance and there must be enough people in Bridgerule to keep the new Post Office busy for eight hours a week.

"We have set up the new Post Office inside the hall foyer and a lot of work has gone in to getting the service up and running, not least by the Post Office themselves for which we are very grateful.

"They have been pushing to move things along since September last year when the building improvements were completed but a few technical problems in getting the internet up and running at the hall delayed the opening."

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week's edition of the Post.