A RIBBLE Valley woman has turned her living room into the village post office.

Deborah Taylor now stamps payment books and counts out the coins as she serves customers from her home in Hurst Green.

The 43-year-old, who previously ran the post office from her pub, the Eagle and Child, decided to re-open it in her home, in Warren Fold, after selling the lease earlier this year.

The mother-of-two, who lives with her husband Frank, 50, also used to manage the post office in her village shop before it was sold and changed into an estate agents She said: “I used to run it in the pub and I just had to keep it going for all the local people. Our village has quite a lot of pensioners and for them to go to another post office would mean a five to six- mile bus journey either way.

“We don’t have a shop any more so it is essential to keep this service going in the village.”

The new branch, which is open on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings, from 9am until noon, provides the same range of post office products and services as before. Mrs Taylor has increased security in her home and is planning to making further changes.

She said: “At the moment it is being run from the living room, but we are planning to make a few changes to the house to include a serving counter and a hatch.

“It is strange having locals queuing up in my living room, but they are just really happy we are still here and we want to tell the rest of the villagers who don’t know that we have moved and that it is business as usual.”

Hurst Green councillor Janet Alcock, said: “The residents are very grateful to Mrs Taylor because the public transport around here isn’t great, so if they want to get to a post office it can take half a day. “This service is vital for people who aren’t that mobile.”

A Post Office spokesman said: “The relocation of the Hurst Green service presents the best possible solution to enable us to maintain Post Office services in the village for the future.”