A Bramhope couple helped ease the burden of Christmas post for a number of locals in their village.

Jason Cullen and his partner, Claire Watmough, turned their dining room into a post office over the festive season helping send over 100 parcels and letters around the globe.

The scheme was in response to the closure of the village post office a year ago.

Upset by the decision, Jason and Claire, who run a personalised gifts service, were given the go-ahead by Royal Mail to act as intermediaries so that local people would not have to queue at post offices in Adel, Pool or Otley.

Jason, 37, said: “It went reasonably well although I wish more people had taken advantage of what we had on offer. It was only a trial thing and we stopped on December 23. We did help quite a few people and delivered over 100 items but in order for it to really work we would have needed a lot more people to come in.”

Jason, who lives on Moor Road in Bramhope, opened a businesss account with Royal Mail last year allowing him to ship items directly from his business, mysignedbook.com, which he runs from home.

He made no profit from the scheme which allows local people to piggyback on to his daily 3pm mail collection.

He said: “We had some people phoning up and willing us to go on but it can be a bit limiting waiting in for people on the off-chance that they will turn up. We have agreed with some people that if they phone us we will help.

“We would be keen to do it again next year but perhaps we need some more publicity and to start earlier so that people really take advantage of the service. It doesn’t matter if you only have one letter – just bring it along.”

The scheme, which started last November, was unable to offer other post office services such as pensions, but Jason hoped it would go some way towards alleviating the problems the village has faced since it lost its only post office.

He and his partner were authorised to frank parcels and send them out anywhere in the world through their normal business post. Customers paid exactly the same charges as they would in any normal post office.

Jason said: “There is plenty of off-street parking near where I live so I felt it would be ideal for locals. We need their support though so if we do decide to do it again we would hope they would use it.”

Jason and Claire can be contacted on 0113 284 2151.