By Joanne Kelly

FORMER sub-postmaster Harold Churchill has been accused of stealing more than £34,000.

The Post Office is prosecuting Churchill, who used to run Bratton Post Office and shop.

He is charged with stealing £34,850 between August 26 1998 and March 2 this year and is due to appear in court in Trowbridge today.

Despite the investigations, the post office business has been little affected.

Spokesman Pam Johns said the sub post office had been closed for only a few days since last March, when Churchill was suspended.

There were short closures in March and August.

"Once we realised there was something amiss, Mr Churchill was suspended and an investigation launched, but we had to make sure the service to villagers was not interrupted," said Mrs Johns.

The post office arranged for a number of temporary managers to take over the business at Churchill's premises until August 5.

"Mr Churchill had wanted his premises back in August, so with great support from the parish council and the community the service has been saved," said Mrs Johns.

The parish council stepped in at the 11th hour to pay for a new office in the Jubilee Hall in the village.

Parish councillor Kathleen White said: "It was extremely important as the hub of the community where people would pay their accounts and get their pension.

"Its loss would have left people having to travel to Edington or Westbury."

Parish councillors met in private and voted to provide a new sub post office, staffed by volunteers from the village.

The new office, a temporary arrangement, opened on September 5 and is manned between 9am and 12 noon.

"We did what we could to fill in the gaps.

"We are interviewing a number of people interested in taking the post office on and hopefully we will get back into a permanent arrangement," said Mrs Johns.

The Post Office is working in conjunction with the village to find a permanent place for people to collect pensions and other benefits, buy stamps and pay bills.