In 2008 Post Office Ltd closed 2,500 post offices, and Dryslwyn was scheduled to be one of them. Removal of the postmaster's salary meant that the shop, too, must close as it would be financially unsustainable. We formed an action group to attempt to stop this happening, and we fought the good fight, but we lost! At the "wake" held to thank the action group, it was suggested that if enough volunteers could be found, perhaps the shop could remain open. At a public meeting in the Reading Room the community decided to go ahead and make the attempt to keep the shop open. So here we are today, a thriving and successful enterprise.

Our Project to relocate the Community Shop into our own new building is up and running! We have the generous offer of a plot of land, and with our architects the first stage is conducting a feasibility and design study in consultation with the community. We have a brilliant Project Team of volunteers from across the community and St David’s Day 2021 is our consultation launch!

We have been talking informally to a wide range of stakeholders including Carmarthenshire planners, politicians, and a host of potential funders to begin to raise awareness and aim to avoid snags further down the line.

Because of Covid we need to do lots of things virtually. But this gives us the chance to really push boundaries to bring people together on line. Our social media and this micro web site are starting to bounce with info and our launch will be on-line. The team is also starting to use all sorts of other project tools in earnest too – like a virtual ‘mind map’ for design ideas, project task boards so we know who is doing what. There’s a lot to do.

We envisage Dryslwyn Community Shop and Post Office as a successful volunteer-led not-for-profit facility that we all value and are proud of. Somewhere that is welcoming, vibrant, and vital as a Community asset, that is supported and widely participated in, by everyone across the local community and those beyond, is light in its environmental impact, big in its social impact – helping the community address immediate and future challenges – whatever those might be.