At the community shop and Post Office in Burley Gate, a small band of dedicated volunteers and staff continue to soldier on, keeping the shop open seven days a week as they have, uninterrupted, for nearly a year.

This entails collecting bread at 7am from Lamings, assembling and preparing the newspaper and bread orders, ordering from suppliers, shopping, replenishing the shelves, cleaning and much more besides serving behind the counter.

"April will mark the fifth anniversary of the shop in its present location," say the team behind the shop, "and it is timely to thank those who had the vision and put in the hard graft to get the project up and running and to everyone along the way who has helped make us the success we are today. "

"If it was allowed we would give ourselves, customers, volunteers and suppliers a huge pat on the back, and maybe a socially distanced chocolate. Most of our readers will know us by now as a small local Community Shop and Post Office located in the car park at Burley Gate Village Hall. The shop is run by a friendly team of volunteers with Phil and Lisa running the Post Office.

We are all now much more familiar with what we need to do to minimise the risk of Covid infection to ourselves and each other. Whilst it is hugely encouraging that the vaccination programme is progressing apace increased transmissibility of the new covid variants mean that we need to be extra vigilant in minimising the risk of infection to ourselves and each other. So much is still uncertain, please do not relax your guard and help protect those who have not yet received the vaccine.

The Shop and Post Office currently close at 1pm Monday to Friday with weekend opening unchanged. We will endeavour to maintain these hours dependent on the availability of volunteers and staff and may need to adjust our opening times at short notice.

Opening hours:

Shop: Mon-Fri 8:00-1:00, Sat: 8:30-12:30, Sun: 8:30-10:30

Post Office: Mon-Fri 9:00-1:00, Sat 9:00-12:30, Sun: closed.

Tel . 01432 820804