AFTER weeks of travelling out of town to collect pensions and pay bills, Wedmore residents will soon be able to use their own post office. Axbridge postmaster Richard Helps will be running the new Royal Mail sorting office at 12 The Borough. The premises

AFTER weeks of travelling out of town to collect pensions and pay bills, Wedmore residents will soon be able to use their own post office.Axbridge postmaster Richard Helps will be running the new Royal Mail sorting office at 12 The Borough.The premises is currently being changed from a garage into a 43sq metre office and it is hoped the store will be ready by the summer.Richard, aged 43, said: "It's been a bit of a nightmare because they haven't had a post office service in Wedmore and Shipham for a long time and people have had to travel to Axbridge and Cheddar."Richard, who has been postmaster at Axbridge for seven years, will be splitting his time between the two stores.Wedmore's post office in Church Street closed on March 30 after the postmaster announced his retirement.The new post office is just 500 metres from the old site. When the post office shut, a temporary delivery centre was set up in Blackford Village Hall.Postal workers have to travel to the neighbouring village to collect letters for delivery from the hall.But residents who want to pick up parcels or use other services have to travel to Axbridge Post Office in St Marys Street.The temporary delivery office will stay until new post offices in the villages are set up.Shipham Post Office also closed in March after the postmaster announced his resignation but nobody has been found to run it yet.A Royal Mail spokesman said: "No solution has been found for Shipham. "We are working closely with the local community and are hoping to bring a post office service back to the village.