Bibury, the idyllic Cotswolds village named the most beautiful in the world by America's Forbes Magazine last month, could soon lose its post office.

Even though it only opened again in July after a lengthy period when the village didn't have the facility, the post office's future does not look bright.

Owner Lady Anne Evans, who re-launched it as part of her new cafe and gallery shop development in the heart of Bibury, already fears it might not be economically viable.

She has stopped opening it for five-and-a-half days a week and instead now opens it only on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 9am to 4pm.

She said: "I want to open it for five-and-a-half days a week, but I can't if nobody is using it. It is a use it or lose it situation.

"At the moment, there are a maximum of three or four transactions in a day."

Lady Anne said she had to pay the wages of an employee in the post office and at the moment the money being made by the facility was nowhere near enough to cover that.

She said she would have preferred to have used the space at her new business, which is called Eleven Bibury, for retail - but agreed to have a post office there as that was what villagers had asked for.

She added: "I've had to cut the hours to make it even possibly viable. It isn't at the moment.

"I've lived in the village for 25 years. I'm extremely committed to it and the location. It's an international heritage site."

She said the whole point of opening Eleven Bibury was to provide a service for the community, hence the addition of a post office as well as a cafe, gardens and a gallery shop.

"I want the post office side of it to be a profitable business. It was missing from the village for about two-and-a-half years but it's not being used.

"I want the best for the village, but we do have to be realistic about this. It isn't a charity," she said.

Bibury, which is near Cirencester, has had an increasing number of tourists in recent times. It has caused major parking and congestion problems at peak times and led some residents to complain about over-tourism blighting the village.

But it seems that the extra visitors have not been using the post office and neither have many of the villagers.