Fight on for villagers to keep Stallingborough Post Office

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Fight on for villagers to keep Stallingborough Post Office open

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PROVIDING a postal service in Stallingborough has become a real community affair – with even the village hall being mooted as a possible venue – after it was announced that the Post Office is to close.

A meeting will take place tomorrow evening into how best to support the needs of villagers, who will be forced to make do without a Post Office for the foreseeable future after the shop manager posted her resignation.

The decision to shut up shop was made by sub-postmaster Tammy Walker, 40, who is looking to move out of the area after spending the past nine years running the village Post Office.

As reported, the Post Office was under threat in October last year, when Mrs Walker and her husband, Brian, submitted a planning application to North East Lincolnshire Council to close the business and convert the building into a house.


At the time, the couple claimed the business has been making a loss for the past three years and that break-ins – including a ram-raid which cost £24,000 in damages – had been the final straw.

Now the couple are selling up and moving away – leaving the village without the facility.

Elderly members of the community, in need of postal facilities, have been told they must now make their way to branches in Healing or Immingham, with the Station Road premises closing on Wednesday, November 24.

News of the imminent closure has sparked a swift response from parish councillors, who are in discussions with postal chiefs over potential options to salvage the local service.

Kathy Nunn, Stallingborough parish clerk, said: "We have submitted a request to the Post Office and are awaiting a reply. We have talked about the possibility of using the village hall.

"I have experience of a similar problem in another rural setting where I worked previously and in that case we looked into using someone's front room as a morning Post Office.

"Obviously it is an important service for people and one we want to save."

The issue of Stallingborough Post Office will be addressed at a parish council meeting at the village hall on Wednesday from 7.30pm.

Keep checking your Grimsby Telegraph for further updates.