FIFTEEN communities — including Ashwater, Bridgerule, Bridestowe, Milton Abbot, Chillaton and St Giles-on-the-Heath — have had the future of their village shops secured by Devon County Council.
The shops are being given annual grants of £5,000 by the council for the next three years plus free business advice to enable shop owners and managers to revise their business strategies after the removal of support from Post Office Limited (POL).
All 15 faced possible closure after last year's changes to the Post Office network.
Devon County Council, all eight district councils and Torbay Council teamed up to challenge Post Office Limited's plans to close 37 post offices across Devon and Torbay and replace 32 others with outreach services.
Local councillors consulted widely in the towns and villages affected and identified 15 communities where the post office closure would mean the loss of the only shop in the vicinity.
Their research looked at the demography of the people using the post offices, the geography of the areas and how easily the nearest post office and shop could be reached by public transport. They lobbied Post Office Limited strongly to remove some post offices from its planned closure list.
Post Office Limited agreed in some cases to 'partnered' services with local shop owners, allowing post office counters to remain. But under those arrangements, shop owners lose the financial benefits that they would otherwise have received from POL, and on which many shops relied to support the retail side of their businesses.
As a result the county council pledged financial and business support for 15 post office shops, for a period of three years, to help them become viable and sustainable in the long term.
The post office shops being supported include Bridgerule; Ashwater; Milton Abbot; Chillaton; St Giles-on-the-Heath; Bridestowe.
County Council Leader, Cllr Brian Greenslade, said: "The changes announced by Post Office Limited last year would have closed too many post offices and had a huge impact on local people. They could easily have sounded the death knell for the only shop in many communities, and that was something Devon County Council did not want to see happen.
"Through the grants, which shops are now receiving, and the business advice, we are helping owners, managers and local people have the chance and choice to keep their post office shops open."
'VITAL'
Devon County Council's Post Office Champion Cllr Gordon Hook said: "Having owned 'the village shop' in a previous life, I know from personal experience how vital the help provided by Devon County Council is to those striving to maintain this service. Certain features are indispensable for a sustainable community and the local shop/post office is certainly one of them. The County Council is determined to do all in its power to maintain the traditional features of rural life in this most beautiful of counties."
Okehampton Rural County Cllr Christine Marsh commented: "The post offices and local shops are a vital part for the fabric of our rural communities and therefore I am more than pleased to support the help through advice and grants that Devon County Council is giving."
Cllr Alison Clish-Green, Chair of West Devon Borough Council's Post Office working group, said: "West Devon is a very rural, sparsely populated area and we did not want to see any post office closures. However, we are pleased to have worked together with Devon County Council to keep open four post offices in our area which would otherwise have been closed."
Cllr David Weeks, Chairman of the Borough Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee, added: "To ensure the future viability of post office counter services the government needs to look at ways of introducing new business. Its recent announcement about extending banking services at post offices could be just the sort of sustainable lifeline the network needs.
"I hope the public use and support their post offices as much as they possibly can particularly as the salaries of the affected postmasters in West Devon have dropped significantly since the introduction of outreach services and partnership agreements."
Steve Haigh, owner and partner of Chillaton Post Office said: "This grant from Devon County Council is extremely helpful and could make the difference to this village shop continuing or not. We are very grateful to the county council for its understanding in helping us to remain here to serve our customers."
Naomi Nardi from Bridestowe Post Office added: "Although Bridestowe has yet to change from being a post office to a Partner Outreach, we very much appreciate Devon County Council's recognition of how essential this shop and post office is to Bridestowe and the surrounding communities, and its practical support to keep these facilities available."