Losing Post Office would take the 'heart of village'

A villages faces losing a "vital rural lifeline" as its Post Office branch faces permanant closure, local campaigners have said.

The community shop in East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, has hosted a post office counter rent-free for the past two decades.

But the Post Office counter in the volunteer-run store has been closed since February, following the resignation of the rural bureau's postmaster.

In a statement, the Post Office said it was looking for a new franchisee to run the branch, but if this was not successful then it would be forced to close.

It explained that it would be "happy to discuss" the possibility of the community shop taking over the running of the counter.

But Sally Barksfield, chair of East Hagbourne Community Shop, said: "We've just got volunteers who do one or two-hour slots during the day, and we can't really take on that management."

"What we really want is to continue the way we have the post office as it is, as this community model where we have a cubicle with a trained postmaster in," she added.

The community shop has hosted the Post Office cubicle for 20 years without charging for rent or utility bills.

Barksfield said the agreement "really has been beautifully beneficial" to both the shop and the Post Office which was "at the heart of the village".

"It's very important to the community, and people are rallying around because they don't want to see it go.

"We have a quite a large population of elderly and vulnerable people and it's very difficult for them to go anywhere else effectively, because we don't have very good public transport links around the area."

In a statement, the Post Office said: "East Hagbourne Post Office is closed due to the resignation of the postmaster who operates the branch within the community shop and it has been closed since 24 February. "

It said the nearest alternative Post Offices were in Didcot and Georgetown - both of which are less than two miles (3km) away from East Hagbourne.

A vacancy to operate the East Hagbourne Post Office at its current location would be "advertised shortly", the firm said.

"If there is a suitable applicant the branch will reopen. If not, then people in East Hagbourne will need to visit alternative locations," it added.

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