Scouts in Clevedon have launched their annual Christmas post service and are aiming to raise thousands of pounds to revamp their base.

The 1st Clevedon Scout Hut in Great Western Road is in need of a refurbishment to its kitchen and members are hoping to kickstart a campaign to fund the work during this festive season when it will help deliver Christmas cards to people around the town.

Changes to the kitchen are expected to cost in the region of £6,500 and it is hoped completion of the work will make the facility easier to use and enable members to take part in more cooking.

Nikki Hetherington, 1st Clevedon Scouts volunteer, said: “This is the main fundraising event of the year for our group and we are aiming to use funds raised to help refurbish our kitchen so the leaders can put on more cooking activities for the children.

“The kitchen itself must be at least 20 years old.

“It is not fit for purpose as the cooker and hob do not work properly and neither does the extractor fan.

“The layout does not make it easy to use both when cooking and especially when clearing up. It is also cluttered with cupboards.

“We also plan to update the building in other areas too. While remembering that it needs to benefit the scout group primarily, we also want to make it better for the hall’s hirers.”

It is hoped work to the kitchen will be completed early in 2016 while Christmas stamps and postboxes will be available from a number of businesses around the town from next week.

Nikki added: “The many local businesses which support us each year will have our Christmas posters on display in their shop windows with our stamps on sale and postboxes available to receive your cards from November 27.”

Scouts will all be involved in the Christmas postal service, which will see them sort and deliver cards to recipients around the town before Christmas Day.

More fundraising activities are planned to help with improvements to the scout hut in the future, including the return of its car boot sales in the new year.

For more information about the scouts group and its Christmas postal service, click here