Planned move for Thornbury Post Office suffers major setbacks

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/151 ... _setbacks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PLANS to move Thornbury’s Post Office to a more central location have suffered a major setback.

The town’s post office branch, currently based in the Co-operative food shop on the High Street, was due to move to a more central location at the Card Bar inside the St Mary Centre.

After the plans were announced last August, a six-week public consultation took place, but then everything went quiet, with the expected move before Christmas not taking place.

Now it has emerged that the Card Bar’s parent company, Occasions Retailing Ltd, has gone into administration, meaning the post office move is off for now.

On top of this, the new postmaster recruited – as the current one is retiring – to run the planned branch inside Card Bar has now backed out because the relocation is off.

A Post Office spokeswoman said they would not be proceeding with the plans to relocate the branch to St Mary Centre after “being advised that the agreed premises would not be available in the near future.”

She added: “The existing Postmaster has agreed to continue to run the existing branch for the time being.”

The spokeswoman added that any new proposals to move the post office would be subject to a further public consultation.

A spokesman from the Peer Group, which runs St Mary Centre, said that talks were taking place over possibly giving the Card Bar premises to the Post Office.

He added: “If we can find a party who wants to become the new postmaster, we will be heading in the right direction to keep the Post Office in the centre of Thornbury.”

A letter from the Post Office was read out to Thornbury Town Council at Tuesday’s meeting.

Cllr Maggie Tyrrell said she was “very disappointed” the branch was not moving to a central area.

“If you are coming to town for the Post Office, you will go to the shops that you want to go to. Having the branch more centralised might help to encourage people to visit nearby businesses.”

She added that it would be nice to see a stand-alone Post Office branch, rather than it being inside another shop, as it would mean customers wouldn’t feel they were in the way of other shoppers.

Mike Horton, vice-chairman of the Thornbury Chamber of Commerce, and owner of Gems of Thornbury, a few doors down from the current Post Office branch in the Co-op, added that the important thing was for Thornbury to retain a post office in the town centre, regardless of location.