Post office proposal fails

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RESIDENTS who campaigned for the return of a post office have been left angry by plans for a tattoo parlour instead.
Locals had hoped a vacant shop in Havant Road, Drayton, would be filled by a post office after the old branch in the Co-op was closed last year.

With 11 per cent of the population aged over 75, elderly residents currently have to travel to Cosham.
But their hopes of a new Post Office at the former florists at 236 Havant Road have been dashed after a planning application for a tattoo parlour.

Steve Wemyss, Tory group leader and Drayton and Farlington councillor, said: 'What we really need is a post office and we certainly don't need a tattoo parlour.

'Most people will think its ludicrous and not fitting with the demographic profile of Drayton. Even now the Cosham office is struggling to cope with the demand placed on it.'

More than 3,000 people signed a petition last year calling for a post office to be reopened in Drayton. At one point the city council even looked into the possibility of opening and running a branch itself, but this came to nothing.

However residents had still hoped to convince the Royal Mail to reopen a branch.

Charlotte Wilson, 37, of Drayton, owner of Cameo Brides of Drayton, said: 'After losing our Post Office I would have thought another one would be more appropriate.

'The local residents would not use the tattoo parlour. I think a post office would have been better, people would have to be travelling into Drayton to visit the studio because I really don't think any one around here would be queuing up.'

The application can be viewed online at portsmouth.co.ukand will be debated at a planning committee.

Jackie Stenson, spokeswoman for Royal Mail, said: 'We had to make difficult decisions with the network chains programme and Drayton was one. We do not plan to build one in that area in the foreseeable future.'