Post office will open next to axed branch

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A NEW post office will open in Plymouth on Monday – just yards from where one was closed down only 16 months ago.

Long-running negotiations between Plymouth City Council and Post Office Ltd have led to the establishment of a Post Office counter in The Late Shop, in Stuart Road, Pennycomequick, creating two new jobs.

The shop is just a few doors from Tremain News, where the Post Office branch was one of seven in the city to be axed during a huge cull of more than 40 Post Offices across Devon in 2008.

The shutdown was carried out despite a popular campaign to save the branch.

However, Stoke ward councillor Joan Watkins took up the cudgels and continued to press for a U-turn, arguing that branches in the city centre and Mutley Plain were too far away for the elderly and mothers with small children to visit and the one in Cecil Street, Stonehouse, involved a punishing uphill hike, again difficult for old folk and parents with tots.

Cllr Watkins said residents were angry and upset to lose a community facility.

After lengthy talks – during which a branch in the city-centre Derrys store also closed, further complicating the issue – a resolution was found.

The new branch will offer a slightly reduced service from previously, but will nonetheless offer main Post Office services, including providing stamps, posting items, claiming benefits and cash withdrawals.

It will also soon be open during the shop's hours of 7am to 10pm, an extension of the previous branch's opening times.

Council information will also be provided, including advice on benefits and caring for older people.

Cllr Watkins praised council officers for their hard work in pressing for the return of a counter to Pennycomequick.

"It's been a long, protracted and rocky road," Cllr Watkins said. "There have been difficult discussions and negotiations. Officers have been diligent, focused and persistent, and I'm grateful we have achieved this at last.

"My aim was to get a facility back in this area. It's good news for the people in this area, particularly vulnerable people."

The Tory councillor called Post Office Ltd's closure policy 'disastrous' and argued that the Government should have done more to retain services.

She said she had approached The Late Shop's boss Martin Paish to provide a home for the new branch.

Complicated issues involving compensation payments had provided a hurdle to re-establishing the branch inside Tremain News.

Mr Paish, whose business is a member of the Premier convenience store group, said: "I'm looking forward to this making us busier, so we can profit and move forward, and it's good for the rest of the shops in the area.

"If I hadn't taken this it most probably wouldn't have come here and we would all have suffered."

Meanwhile, at Tremain News, former postmaster Abul Tarafder said: "The Post Office coming back is an admission that they need one in the area – so why did they close it in the first place?"

A Post Office Ltd spokeswoman said: "We are trialling a new Post Office local service in Pennycomequick following a recent review of the way we provide services in Plymouth."