A scheme to build a community shop and cafe in a Monmouthshire village has started.

The new purpose-built Rogiet Community Shop and Cafe will provide healthy home cooked meals, local and affordable produce, everyday essentials, a teaching kitchen, a small garden and provide a focal meeting point for the village.

The cafe was originally set up nine years ago to bring people together and reignite the idea of community.

It was a space for mums and babies, those needing company, those with dementia, those meeting a friend for coffee on their day off and much more.

As a central hub for the community, PCSOs, MPs and councillors use it for informal surgeries with the customers.

But it was felt the residents of Rogiet needed it to be more permanent so that everyone could access it.

Rogiet Community Council, recognising the benefits to the locals, have agreed to lease a plot of community land in the centre of the village at a peppercorn rate.

Having been awarded £465,450 by the National Lottery Community Fund and £300,000 by the Welsh Government Community Facilities Programme work is now ready to start on the build.

A spokesman for Rogiet Community Junction, which is behind the scheme, said: "It has been a long road but we have now broken ground!

"To help us celebrate this fantastic event the local nursery joined trustees, volunteers and the building contractors, MG Contractors, for a photo opportunity. Rogiet Community Junction and the whole of Rogiet are so excited about the future and the opportunities this new venture will bring."