LUDGERSHALL has welcomed a new addition to its family of businesses.

Town council chairman Councillor Owen White was invited to open the new branch of Will Case and Partners funeral directors.

The new Tidworth Road premises is located in the old Lloyds Bank building opposite the war memorial and perfectly places the business within the mixed military and civilian community to be able to arrange military funerals.

Owned by Alan and Sue Puxley, Will Case and Partners has been providing funeral services for over 100 years and also has branches in Salisbury and Amesbury.

Mr Puxley, a qualified funeral director, worked for the firm for 22 years before being invited to join international disaster team, Kenyon International, in 2001, giving him a greater understanding of how different cultures, nationalities and religions approach death.

He returned to Will Case and Partners in 2013 and announced that he had inherited the company earlier this year to run the firm alongside wife Sue.

On the opening on the business, Cllr White, said: “It is a privilege to be asked to open the business on behalf of the town and I am very pleased to welcome Will Case and Partners to Ludgershall.”

Manager of the Ludgershall branch, Michael New, said: “I am delighted with the response from the town council and other businesses.”

There are now 38 businesses in Ludgershall with only one unit standing empty and one being refurbished.