TAMAR Valley Food Hubs, the new online grocery service specialising in produce grown and made in the Tamar Valley, is now offering free delivery to Calstock and Gunnislake railway stations.

Tamar Valley Food Hub staff will meet passengers with their shopping, on their return from Plymouth on one of the main Friday afternoon trains. It is hoped that the service will encourage people to buy more local food and will hopefully cut down on extra journeys made to supermarkets.

Tamar Valley Food Hubs will be at both stations for the arrival of the 4.38pm train from Plymouth on Fridays. The train arrives in Calstock at 5.11pm and Gunnislake at 5.24pm.

Simon Platten, from Tamar Grow Local, said: 'We'd like to extend special thanks to Cornwall Council and First Great Western for allowing us to use the station car park as a collection point and we're really excited to be adding in the stations in our network of collection points where local people can conveniently collect their Tamar Valley shopping on a Friday afternoon, ready for the weekend.

'By using a collection point network as well as home delivery, we can help cut down the number of individual journeys to supermarkets and our customers can collect from us on their way home from work, so it will hopefully be really convenient for those who use the trains for commuting.'

The Tamar Valley Food Hubs range includes fresh fish from Plymouth, St Dominick meat and vegetables, a full range of dairy products and much more rom local producers, many of whom do not have any other outlets or shops.

Rebecca Catterall, from the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, said: 'We are really pleased that Tamar Valley Food Hubs is offering this new service for Tamar Valley line commuters.

'The Tamar Valley line is an important link for local communities into Plymouth but also for people from Plymouth who want to discover this beautiful area of outstanding natural beauty. The railway has a history of transporting food, as well as people. In its heyday, around 350,000 packages of fruit and flowers were being carried to London from March to July.'

Other collection points in the valley include the Quaker House in Tavistock, Tamar Valley Centre in Drakewalls, Tamar Grow Local in Callington and Bere Alston Post Office. There are no minimum order requirements and orders can be placed up until midnight on Tuesday for delivery on Friday afternoon. For further details and to place orders visit the website at http://www.tamarvalleyfoodhubs.org.uk">www.tamarvalleyfoodhubs.org.uk