VILLAGERS are campaigning to have a payment system installed in a shop.

People from Low Westwood and Hamsterley Colliery are trying to get a PayPoint system at Derwent Sandwiches, a general dealers.

It enables people to top up credit on the key-operated electricity and gas meters as well as mobile phones.

At the moment, people have to go neighbouring Chopwell or nearby Consett.

Ronnie Allaker, 32, of Derwent Cote, Hamsterley Colliery, has launched a petition to make the company take notice.

He said: "I don't think it is very fair that elderly and disabled people have to travel to get credit for their heating, especially at this time of year.

"They are the most vulnerable members of society and these cards are their lifeline."

Mr Allaker is looking for support from the community.

A copy of the petition will be kept in the shop for customers to sign.

Shop owner Sylvia Sharp said: "Some of the people who come into shop are living hand to mouth and cannot afford to get on the bus. It is dreadful that in this day and age people cannot afford to put the heating on when it is cold."

A spokesman for PayPoint said the company has no plans to install the service at Derwent Sandwiches.

He said: "We are not in a position to offer this trader an agency because we consider that we have the area well covered.

"When you look at a map they are quite close and we think we have got the area covered adequately."

The matter is to be discussed at The Hamsterley and Low Westwood Residents Association meeting, in Dene Court Communal Rooms, on March 29, at 7pm.