The post office in Pensford is set to move into a new home in a historic building across the road.

Pensford Post Office is planning to move into the Miners’ Welfare Institute across the road, in a move backed by the parish council.

A planning application submitted to Bath and North East Somerset Council seeks to change the use of the institute from a disused cafe to the shop, and to turn the shop’s old premises into a one bedroom flat.

A statement submitted with the planning application said: “The applicants own the family run post office/shop but have found the existing shop too restricted based on current day requirements, with its narrow aisles and lack of supporting ancillary space, so they are keen to provide a much improved shopping environment in the village for their customers.”

It added that the coffee shop in the institute building had been closed for a “significant time” and that the Miners’ Institute Committee wanted to “maintain the use of such an important building in the village.” It has therefore been offered as a new location for the post office and shop, under a long lease.”

Pensford was a mining town with a colliery active from 1909 until 1953. The Pensford Viaduct, which dominates the village, was built to transport coal from Radstock and the Somerset coalfield in the mid-19th century.