A POST office branch that was forced to close during first week of lockdown in Wales has been able to re-open its doors.

Huw Hilditch-Roberts runs the main post offices in Denbigh and Ruthin.

He closed his Denbigh branch on Friday, March 27, and the Ruthin branch continued to operate on reduced hours.

Huw said: “Since last Tuesday, we have been on 9am to 5pm from Monday to Friday in Denbigh.

“We have worked really hard to get the staff capacity. We haven’t qualified for any government financial support, so we have worked hard to get to this stage and now to open and maintain a service.

“We'd like to say to our regulars that Andrea [Griffith] is back. That is important.

“We are just happy to have normal service resume.

“We are also open for cards and gifts.”

The post office normally has four staff members in total.

“In terms of social distancing, we have got a two metre queuing system in place and Andrea is behind a screen," Mr Hilditch-Roberts added.

The post office normally operates with four staff.

Talking about the first day of re-opening, Huw said: “We were very pleased to be back open. We have an indoor space for queuing and a full service available to the good folk of Denbigh.

"We have some loyal customers who have started to come back but a lot of our more elderly customers don’t know we have re-opened. We will happily welcome them back with open arms."

Mr Hilditch-Roberts, a county councillor who is lead member for education and children’s services in Denbighshire, took over the post office in Ruthin in 2016 and the Denbigh branch towards the end of 2017.

As part of the phased re-opening, priority will be given to the elderly between 9am and 10am.

Customers are asked to adhere to the two-metre guideline and only five customers in the build at a time.

Ruthin Post Office is open 9.30am-1.30pm Monday to Friday.