Fifteen communities 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 county 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).

The move was celebrated at Postbridge Post Office on Monday — one of five post offices in the Times circulation area to receive the grant.

Postbridge postmaster Gerald Smerdon said: 'I am very pleased that Devon County Council has taken note of what has happened to local post offices and is prepared to do something about it.'

Other local post office shops being supported include Bridestowe, Chillaton, Milton Abbot and Ashwater.

Naomi Nardi from Bridestowe PO said: '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.'

Steve Haigh, owner and partner of Chillaton PO, said the grant from the county council could make the difference to the village shop continuing or not.

The county council, all eight district councils and Torbay Council teamed up to challenge POL's plans to close 37 post offices across Devon and Torbay.

POL 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 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 county council's Post Office champion Cllr Gordon Hook said: 'Certain features are indispensable for a sustainable community and the local shop/post office is certainly one of them.'

Yelverton Rural County Cllr Alan Hosking was very pleased the county council had been able to help Postbridge PO.

'I had the privilege of attending a public meeting to discuss the threatened closure, when it became obvious that the community valued the post office for its postal services, for its shop and for its vital role as an informal meeting place for all members of this relatively isolated community.'

Cllr Alison Clish-Green, chair of West Devon Borough Council's Post Office working group, said: 'These post offices will now continue to provide a vital lifeline to remote communities and individual businesses, thus hopefully enabling them to survive.'

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.'