Post Office seeks viable alternative to Barry's loss-making crown branch

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A CONSULTATION is currently under way to find a viable alternative to losing Barry’s crown Post Office services.

The Post office recently announced its intention to close the current Holton Road Crown branch.

Post Office representative Stuart Taylor told a FocusBARRY public meeting on Friday that the building it is currently operating from was not owned by the company, but by the Royal Mail, a separate company, and that the site had become a “loss-making” business.

Mr Taylor said an interested party, nearby, had already approached the Post Office with a view to providing future services however, and added that more businesses were welcome to express an interest.

Full training would, he said, be provided.

“The current branch in Barry is loss-making. We are making changes in 41 locations across the UK and Barry is one of these," said Mr Taylor.

"We can’t make money at this branch and we can’t see any possibility to get this branch to break even.”

He said the Post Office had overheads involving property rent, and energy and staffing costs, at the Royal Mail-owned Holton Road site.

But Mr Taylor added that he hoped staff could be re-located and that another business would act in the form of a ‘local’ post office partner with the Barry King Square branch, which provides nearly as many services as a Crown.

Crown provision will remain available at Cardiff and Bridgend.

He added: “Customers in Barry will still have good access to post offices in that area.”

The consultation is set to end on February 19. Interested parties can email stuart.taylor@postoffice.co.uk