Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has welcomed the news that the Tow Law Mobile Post Office will be available whilst Wolsingham Post Office is temporarily closed.
From 1st February 2021, the Wolsingham Post Office will be temporarily closed. It is currently located in the SPAR shop in Market Place, but the shop will be closing, leaving the Post Office without immediate premises to relocate to. A number of constituents have written to Richard with concern that the community will be left without a post office. Richard has written to the post office, stating that it currently provides an essential service to local people, and stressed that residents are keen that a new post office is established at a permanent site as soon as possible. You can read more about this here.
Richard has previously worked with the Post Office during his successful campaign to prevent the ATM at Billy Row Post Office being removed, which you can read about here. This was part of Richard’s wider campaign for access to cash, which you can read about here. Richard has also previously worked with the Post Office on the closure of Consett Post Office, which was reopened – you can find out more about this here.
The Post Office have now confirmed to Richard that a temporary Mobile Post Office service to the community will be put in place whilst a permanent solution is looked for. The Postmaster from Tow Law Post Office operates a mobile service and will be extending this to Wolsingham. To accommodate the new service, minor changes have been made to the current opening hours, which will take effect from Wednesday 3rd February 2021. The Post Office have stressed that they will continue to monitor the number of customers using their services and that they are keen to restore services in the area as soon as possible.
The Mobile Post Office will be found in Wolsingham Post Office Car Park next to the Town Hall and will be open on Wednesdays from 16:00-17:30 and Fridays from 14:30-16:00. A wide range of services will be available, including benefit collections and postal services.
Commenting, Richard said:
“I am delighted that the Post Office will be offering a temporary mobile service to ensure that residents of Wolsingham have access to the services they need. Post Offices provide a vital service for many of my constituents, particularly the elderly and the vulnerable, and I welcome what the Post Office is doing to ensure people will not struggle as a result of not having accesses to the services they need.
“I’ve worked with the Post Office for the duration of my time as an MP on both my access to cash campaign and Consett Post Office, and I want to thank them for all that they are doing and have done for the area and our communities.
“I will continue to work with the Post Office as they look for new premises for the Wolsingham branch and please do get in touch if you have any queries about this.”
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