WITH THE post office and stores due to close soon in Exbourne, villagers are being asked to decide 'if and how' they want a new facility to take its place.

A questionnaire will go out to residents on Monday to find out if there is enough support firstly to retain a shop or post office and secondly what form it will take.

From a simple post office with a few convenience items on the shelf, to an all singing and dancing community shop or regular farmers' market — these are some of the ideas on which the Exbourne Community Initiative wants people to have their say.

As reported in the Okehampton Times in September, the owners of Exbourne Post Office, Doreen and Terry Beauchamp, have been given permission to convert their premises into residential use after trying unsuccessfully to sell the business as a going concern for six years.

Out of a meeting to discuss the future of these village facilities in light of the planning decision, the Exbourne Community Initiative was born.

Chairman of the group the Rev Alex Welby explained: 'The Beauchamps have run the post office and village shop for many years and the community is very grateful for all they have done.

'When we knew the facility was to close we called a public meeting and to our surprise 50 people turned up.'

Mr Welby said there were some very enthusiastic and knowledgeable people on the committee, including those who had links with the post office and various funding sources.

'The important thing here is that we are not sitting in judgement,' he said. 'We have come up with a range of options from very small to very big and it will be for the village to decide which direction they want us to go in.

'It could be that they do not want a shop or post office at all — that is what we need to find out in the first instance.'

The chairman said there was no point in doing a huge amount of work developing a project and then finding out afterwards that nobody wanted it.

The consultation process will involve households in Jacobstowe as well as Exbourne which in total stands at around 200.

The committee is looking at the shop and the post office as individual facilities and one of the ideas is to convert the old Alms House adjoining the churchyard — another is to have a link with a country store.

One member is looking into supermarket prices in Okehampton to see if the village can be competitive and maybe provide a community shop like Sheepwash, which was assisted by the Key Fund.

An option that has been definitely ruled out is to incorporate the facility into the village hall, which is already very active in the community.

Exbourne post office and shop closes on December 31 — the committee hopes to have a plan together for 2002.