HUSBAND and wife team, Martin and Fay Newman, who run Churchinford post office and village shop, are to retire after nearly 20 years following the down grading of their post office.

Now, the post office and stores could be taken over by local people running their own community interest company in an effort to keep the shop open in the face of Government cuts.

Fay told the WWN: "The village shop won't survive without the post office, so we've decided it's time to go."

Churchinford's post office is under threat of being down graded under a massive post office closure programme which would see services provided by a mobile van-based facility available for just 13 hours a week.

See today's Wellington Weekly News for more on this story.