PENPERLLENI'S closure-threatened post office is not going down without a fight .

Postmistress Jay Vakil is fighting a rearguard action to persuade the Post Office to allow her to run the loss-making concern on reduced hours.

She feels the business could then pull itself out of the financial doldrums and stay open for the local community.

The possible alternative is seeing customers venturing much further afield - an estimated seven miles - to do their business, including the elderly with their pensions.

Jay gave the Post Office six months notice of her plans to quit the business unless an agreement could be reached to operate fewer hours.

But so far she has been unable to persuade the Post Office of the reality of trading conditions in the village.

The post office, operating from the Spar store, had been earmarked for temporary closure on June 17 - but now the date has been brought forward nearly a week to June 11.

Jay, who has been in business for 16 years and running the local service for 18 months, hoped a solution could be found during her period of notice which started in January.

'At the moment I cannot carry on because it's making a loss. The Post Office wants it to operate for 70 hours. They are not interested in any loss-making. They won't budge. Not one little bit," said Jay.

She added, "The village is backing me 100 per cent. I am trying very hard to keep it. But the process for closure will be on June 8 with it shutting on the following Thursday, June 11."

The Post Office is exploring options to allow the business to be re-instated. But it insists that any local service would need to be sustainable for both the operator and the employer.

Monmouth Assembly member Nick Ramsey has said the loss of the local facility would be sad. He hoped an acceptable answer to the dilemma could be found.