Residents in Castlefields are celebrating at the news their local post office will finally reopen – after three years of closure.
The post office will return to the Spar shop in the Castlefields shopping precinct later this year.
Shrewsbury town councillor for Castlefields and Ditherington, Alan Mosley, said: “Residents will be delighted that after years of hope and disappointment community spirit, goodwill and effort have brought a great solution.
“This is wonderful news for our area as I know that people have greatly missed the facilities of a post office. I want to congratulate the proprietors of the Spar, Paul and Jill Colley, for bringing a post office back into the community. Post Office Ltd also deserves great praise for sticking to their commitment for a post office in Castlefields.”
Castlefields post office closed three years ago after the shop it was situated in also shut. At the time the closure created uproar among local residents – who were given just two weeks’ notice it was going.
Since that time local residents have lobbied authorities to see it reinstated.
Post Office Ltd said: “The opening of a facility at the Spar will allow us to restore access to post office services in Castlefields following the closure of the previous branch in 2008.
“It has always been our intention to continue to provide a post office service to our customers in Castlefields and, since the closure we have been exploring a number of options with the support of the community and the local member of Shropshire Council.
The new post office will operate from a newly formatted open plan counter in the Spar store. It will have longer opening hours during the week as well as Saturday afternoon and Sunday opening. Councillor Mosley said: “We seem to have bucked the national trend of post office closures thanks to the continuing pressure by the local community. This is great news for the whole of north Shrewsbury.”
By Catherine Ferris