ANOTHER West Somerset village Post Office was set to close this week, less than 12 months since it was taken on by new owners.

The last day of trading for the Post Office in Allerford, near Porlock, is Friday (October 18).

Selworthy Pantry couple Emma and Connor Thrush took over and renovated Allerford Shop, Post Office, and Tea Gardens in November of last year.

They were able to run the postal services as managers under the name of long-serving Postmistress Jackie Scothron, who died recently.

However, the Post Office has now refused the couple’s application to register as Postmasters in their own name ‘with no hugely detailed reasons given’.

Emma said: “Therefore, there is no other option but to close the Post Office.

“The application process for us has been 10 months long and we are not willing to do that again because they make it so difficult.

“It is hugely disappointing because we came here to run the Post Office and because the application as managers went through so smoothly, we did not expect this problem.

“We are talking of getting an ATM machine put in the shop so residents can still have access to their cash.”

An alternative would be for a volunteer from the area to offer to take on the Post Office and run it as a community venture.

Emma and Connor attended Monday’s meeting of Selworthy and Minehead Without Parish Council to raise the issue with councillors but they were unable to come up with any proposals.

The closure news will potentially also be a blow to residents in Minehead who will lose the town’s only Post Office when its Co-op store premises in The Avenue are demolished for a McCarthy Stone retirement flats development.

Allerford and Dunster were the next closest Post Offices to which townsfolk could travel, although Porlock continues to have a thriving service.

At the same time, Emma and Connor said they had been monitoring the daily performance of the shop side of the business and concluded ‘it is not financially viable for us to continue running the business as we are’.

Therefore, they plan to spend the winter rearranging the shop premises to have a counter and a smaller amount of stock at one end, and making room for some indoor seating.

Emma said: “We have turned away numerous customers over the past months when the weather has not been so good to us, so feel this decision is most beneficial for the business.

“Older residents can still get daily essentials like toilet rolls, milk, and newspapers.

“We gave it a go and we are glad we tried.

“But we completely understand supermarkets have changed the way people shop.”

Emma said the tea gardens, which stay open for the season until the end of October, had gone really well.

She said: “We are really pleased with the tea gardens and we get lots of positive feedback.

“We are very excited for what the 2025 season will bring.”