DOZENS of residents from a Weardale village met last week to discuss the proposed closure of their local shop.

More than sixty people attended the meeting on February 10 in a bid to save the only shop and post office in Westgate, near Stanhope.

Scotmid, the shop’s current owners, said in a statement that the shop was losing too much money to be kept open.

The shop currently turns over £150,000 per year but would need an extra £100,000 per year to be considered viable, which Scotmid said was a significant figure to raise from a small community.

John Guyon, chair of Westgate Neighbourhood Forum, who are opposing the closure, led the meeting

He said: “We are very concerned for the people in Westgate who maybe have no transport or bank account and who rely very much now on the Post Office and shop, and who have no access to the internet.

“This closure will hit them very hard and people will miss the shop when it’s gone.”