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'Lifeline' post office returns to town after six years

BBC A white-walled shop with red paint trimmings and a post-office sign and its name - The Paper Shop - above the doorBBC
The service in Langholm will operate out of The Paper Shop

A full-time post office service has returned to a town in the south of Scotland after nearly six years.

Langholm's main post office shut at the end of 2019 and it was left with a part-time outreach service in the town hall for its 2,000 or so residents.

However, thanks to Elizabeth and Kelvin Wilson - who moved to the town four years ago - the "lifeline" service has now returned.

It will operate out of The Paper Shop and be open to the public for 60 hours a week.

A blonde-haired woman in a blue T-shirt with glasses
Elizabeth Wilson said offering the service from their shop had been a "no-brainer"

Elizabeth said she was well aware of the implications for local residents after the loss of the service and the couple had jumped at the chance to bring a full-time service back.

"We were on holiday last year and we got an email asking if we were interested in opening up a post office," she said.

"We just decided to go for it from then. The whole community has been totally behind us."

She said it would save on travel for people wanting to use the service and hopefully also provide a meeting point too.

"There are quite a lot of aged people in the town and they don't want to go travelling to Carlisle," she said.

"For me it was a no-brainer, it was what the community needed. It is quite a tight-knit community, everybody looks after everyone.

"In The Paper Shop, you kind of realise that it is a meeting hub. For some people, we might be the only person that a person sees in a day."

A woman with dark hair and brown eyes wearing a white top smiles into the camera
Cassie Murdoch said getting a full-time service back would make "such a difference" for the town

Solicitor Cassie Murdoch said it would make a big difference to the area.

"First of all, for the business, it is going to be so useful - just for paying in things and sending larger parcels that we can't fit through the post box," she said.

"Just having that service available every day again will make such a difference."

A woman with blonde-hair pulled back and large glasses wearing a dark blue round-necked T-shirt
Café owner Nicole Beattie said having full-time postal services would make "everything so much easier"

That view was echoed by local café owner Nicole Beattie.

"We opened two years ago and we really struggle with our banking," she said.

"It means travelling to Carlisle a lot of the time which means that we don't have a daily service.

"So having something that's available every day in Langholm is going to make everything so much easier."

A blonde-haired woman in a striped shirt with a dark sleeveless top over the top of it
Katherine Latimer said posting items could be a "nightmare" in the past

Katherine Latimer - of Latimer's of Langholm, a furniture shop which has traded in the town for more than a century - said many of their customers still used post as their main method of communication.

She said it would end the "absolute nightmare" of trying to post items out to people.

The new service is available from 07:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, 07:00 to 13:00 on Saturday and 07:00 to 11:00 on Sunday.

Post Office area change manager, Samuel Williams, said he was "delighted" to see a full-time branch return to Langholm.

He said that the Post Office was grateful to the outreach service which operated in the town hall over the past six years.