Aberdyfi residents will celebrate the end of a four-year battle to save its post office store and garage with an open day.

The Aberdyfi community has bought Dyfi Post Office and stores and Penrhos Garage into permanent community ownership.

The couple running the post office and shop can continue to work there and live with family in the flat upstairs, the garage can re-open, both businesses can expand and improve and several non-seasonal, year-round jobs have been saved.

A large empty workshop will provide space for startup businesses or allow existing businesses to expand, generating more jobs, and businesses with year-round job opportunities will be encouraged to apply to rent the space.

This is intended to be the first project of many for Aberdyfi Community Projects Ltd, a not-for-profit company founded by Catrin O’Neill, Des George, Brian Kelly, Lucy Heyman and Guy Shaw.

The company was established to support Aberdyfi community projects , help create affordable homes and create year-round, well-paid jobs.

An open afternoon has been organised to celebrate the acquisition
An open afternoon has been organised to celebrate the acquisition (Image supplied)

They say the response has been heartwarming and terrifying in equal measure with the building’s owner putting potentially much more lucrative possibilities on hold to give the community time to raise funds to buy it.

After two years of relentless grant applications, £500,000 funding was provided by The Shared Prosperity Fund and DTA Wales, with two additional awards from the Aberdyfi Advertising and Improvements Committee.

But the drama did not stop there. The main grant would have been lost if vital works on the building did not begin by October 2024. But a major rock fall made the building uninsurable.

In a nail-biting race against time, the owner brought in engineers, created revised plans, reapplied for building control approval, had their plans rejected and reapplied. Eventually a plan came together and work could commence. The team then secured new insurance and began the process of purchasing the building all over again. The grant had to be returned if work on the building did not begin by Friday, 25 October. They began it, with scant hours to spare, on Thursday, 24.

Catrin O’Neill said: “It’s so wonderful to know that Penrhos Garage and Post Office is now community owned and safeguarded for future generations. It is particularly heartwarming for my family as my taid opened the first garage on this site back in 1922.”

Desmond George said: "The level of support received from Gwynedd council has been phenomenal from the moment we conceived the project. We are so grateful.”

An open afternoon to celebrate will be held at Aberdfyi post office and shop on Saturday, 22 March between 2pm and 4pm. All are welcome to join for a cuppa, cake and live music, and to view the workshop spaces.

The available workshop space for one or two businesses is 17m by 14m. Businesses interested in renting the space are encouraged to attend the open afternoon to view it and take an ‘expression of interest’ form for completion. The forms are also available on www.aberdyfiprojects.co.uk.