The community in Loddiswell has taken its first step towards creating a community Post Office, as their’s is threatened with closure.

The current owner of the Post Office is looking to retire and sell the business and the building. It has been on the market for a while, and is due to close in March this year.

Jean Cameron, who has only lived in the village less than a year, took up the mantle of trying to keep Post Office services in the village after it closes.

She started the meeting, which was held in the Loddiswell Inn on Wednesday, January 31, by explaining that the closest estimate for the population of the village was 980 in 2016 and that Loddiswell’s number of elderly people, the people she thought to be “most impacted” by the loss of the Post Office, was above the national and Devon average.

She said the village was growing, with the new school being built, and that she wanted to know if anyone would be happy to join a committee and work towards providing a Post Office provision in Loddiswell.

Jean has spoken to people who have set up their own community Post Offices and said that the people that run the community service in South Brent, postmasters Andy and Monica Pound from Strete Post Office, said they would be interested in extending the services in Loddiswell if a location could be found.

Ideas that were mentioned included the possibility of having a part-time Post Office in the village shop, a similar set up in the Congregational Hall, buying the current Post Office building as a community, and possibly running another business alongside, but everyone at the meeting was unanimous that they did not want any possible future business to compete with the current shop.

Any location that could be used for the Post Office would need to be checked and vetted for security.

In the end, the group of residents came up with a range of ideas and Jean will be researching each of them to see which would be the most viable.

A couple of people came forward to form a committee, and another meeting will be held in the near future to put move forward with viable proposals.

If anyone would like to contact Jean about Loddiswell Post Office, you can email her on [email protected]