A VILLAGE hit with the sudden closure of its post office has had a service reinstated seven months on.

Marshwood's Post Office and village shop shut in May, citing staffing issues.

A Post Office service has been restored with a new hosted outreach service at St Mary’s Church.

The postmaster for Crewkerne provides the service at the church in Mutton Street every Tuesday from 1.30-3.30pm.

The previous branch has been closed since May. It was run by John Walther for more than 40 years but temporary staff had been covering for him whilst he was unwell.

A group of local residents had previously explored the possibility of starting a community shop for when Mr Walther eventually retired but it did not come to fruition.

The new service at St Mary's will provide banking services for personal customers and small businesses, postage, home shopping returns and parcel delivery service Local Collect.

Bridport and District Citizens Advice launched a campaign earlier this year to try and ensure that money was found to keep open all existing Post Offices in west Dorset.

Rovarn Wickremasinghe, CAB manager, said: “We are most anxious to see a commitment to continued funding of local Post Offices. A new study that has been undertaken by Citizens Advice found that people in rural areas are more likely than those living in towns and cities to depend on their local post office."