THE owners of Exbourne Post Office have been granted the go-ahead by West Devon Borough Council to convert their premises for residential use.

The post office and village shop is expected to close in the next few months because the business is considered to be no longer viable.

Doreen and Terry Beauchamp have been trying to sell their property, which houses the post office and village shop on the ground floor, as a going concern for the last six years. But there has been very little interest from purchasers.

The borough council's planning committee was told last week that although the turnover of the shop was £30,000, profits were only £3,200.

Recent opening of supermarkets in Okehampton have also hit trade and these outlets were now delivering groceries to the Exbourne area.

Mrs Beauchamp said she and her husband wished to retire and they believed that with residential consent on the property, it would be more saleable.

'About 20 per cent of residents use the shop, which is not enough to make it viable,' she said.

'We have tried to sell it but the post office salary is so low nobody wants to take it on.'

When recommending that the application for a change of use be approved, planning officers said it was unreasonable to refuse full residential use given the long period the property had been on the market.

One letter of objection was received to the proposal, which raised concerns over the potential loss of one of the focal points of the village, plus the lack of buses to transport people without cars to alternative facilities.

With no post offices in neighbouring villages, the nearest facility was at Okehampton or Winkleigh.

Supporters of the Exbourne post office and village shop are currently looking into the possibility of maintaining a post office in the village by incorporating it into another business.

Cllr Denise Herrod-Taylor said she supported any suggestion to keep the service going because the closure of a post office would be 'awful' for all the elderly people with no transport.

'Perhaps we could have a visit from a mobile post office which would be better than nothing,' she said.