ACCORDING to the people who live there, St Briavels needs shops and amenities, not more houses.

Adam Alexander moved into the village 28-years-ago and says it used to be a vibrant community.

"I set up my office in a former butcher's shop, just a few doors away from where I live," he said.

"But over the years the shops and the garage in the centre of the village have gone. This village desperately needs a post office.

"I was one of the campaigners trying to utilise the old toilet block in the lay-by on the main road, when it was decommissioned by the district council, for reuse as a post office.

"I even got planning permission for the scheme and official approval from the post office, but for a variety of reasons the project never got off the ground.

"The result is that today many of the village residents rely on the daily delivery of fresh produce like bread and milk along with the daily and local papers."

Raymond Morgan, an 83-year-old who has lived in the village all his life, said he had seen the village go from being a community 'with as many shops to rival most towns to a village with nothing'.

For the full story, read The Forester.