Village post office to be replaced by weekly mobile service

A village post office set to close on Monday will be replaced with a mobile service for just two hours per week.

With the impending closure of Bromfield Post Office and Village Shop, the Post Office has announced it has made arrangements to continue to serve the community.

A mobile service will pitch up in the village every Thursday morning starting from September 3, meaning there will be no gap in which the service is temporarily lost following the shop’s closure.

But the new service will be a significant reduction on the opening times offered by the shop, which had operated Monday to Friday.

The closure of the post office at its current premises was announced earlier this summer after its owner, the Earl of Plymouth Estates, said it could no longer continue to subsidise the loss-making shop due to financial pressures on the business as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “Bromfield Post Office is closing at its current location on August 31 due to the resignation of the Postmaster and the withdrawal of the premises for Post Office.

“A mobile Post Office is being introduced to restore service. The Postmaster for Cleobury North will be visiting on a Thursday morning  from 10 – 12. This service will start on 3 September.”

Customers who need to access a post office outside these hours are being encouraged to make use of nearby branches in East Hamlet and Ludlow.

Bromfield Parish Council had voiced concern over the closure and hosted virtual public meeting at which options including a mobile service or community-run post office were discussed.

Councillor Andy Boddington, parish council chairman, said: “Thanks to the hard work of the Bromfield Parish Council clerk, it will be replaced by a temporary mobile service on Thursday mornings.

“This will also be on the Food Centre site.

“This is good news for Bromfield and those that travel from surrounding parishes to use the popular post office.”

In a letter to Councillor Boddington, the Post Office said the hours offered by the mobile service could change as a result of a “full route review” to be undertaken in the near future.

The letter said: “This may lead to further schedule changes but we will notify you of this in advance and hope to keep disruption to a minimum but we felt it was important to introduce this service at this time with the closure of the current location.”

The letter added that the van would offer “virtually all the services provided at the current location”.