THE Post Office has reassured villagers in Whitley and Shaw that they are still “exploring options” to restore a service in the area.
The villages’ Post Office service – which was located in the Toast Office, Top Lane – closed last year following the announcement that the village shop would not be reopening post the first national lockdown.
The service has remained “temporarily closed” as the Post Office has received no interest or formal applications for the position.
A spokesperson for the Post Office said, “I can assure you that it remains our intention to restore local access to Post Office services to the area.
“I’m sorry for the time it is taking to restore a service locally and for the inconvenience the ongoing temporary closure is causing to our customers. We hope they will continue to use the other branches in the area during this time.”
The Post Office has said that it will consider any “appropriate options” to reopen a service in the area if there are any ‘significant changes’ in the area in the future.
“However due to the length of time the branch has been closed,” explains the Post Office spokesperson, “we would need to satisfy ourselves that any new opportunity would be sustainable for both the Post Office and the operator.”
Whilst the Post Office searches for a new operator, villagers have created the Shaw and Whitley community hub group, which is dedicated to finding a way to retain a village store to serve the local community.
