A picturesque Suffolk village could soon have a permanent post office back in a building bought by the parish council.
Lavenham’s post office, which was housed within the village’s pharmacy, closed unexpectedly in the summer of 2016 following a contract dispute with the subpostmaster.
A mobile service has been visiting the village ever since but now views are being sought on proposals to move the post office into the former tourist information centre.
The Lady Street building has been taken over by the parish council and will be run as a community hub for the village.
The Post Office said the hosted outreach service would be provided by the Long Melford postmaster on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 11am-2pm.
This is the same number of hours currently offered by the mobile service.
Carroll Reeve, chairman of Lavenham Parish Council, said the community backed the move at engagement events held in the village.
“The mobile service has been fine, and it has been better than having no post office,” he said. “But around a third of our population is over 65 and it is not ideal for people to be queuing outside in bad weather.
“It also gives a degree of permanency to the post office.
“We held a couple of open days in September in the village and this was one of the things discussed.
“People were really pleased. They want a proper post office that is here to stay.”
The same range of products and services will be available including car tax, and there will be one open plan serving point.
The Post Office is now inviting customers and interested parties to give their comments on the move in a public consultation and is looking for feedback about accessibility, local community issues and anything that can be done to make life easier for customers.
The consultation will close on January 22 and customers can share their views during the consultation online at www.postofficeviews.co.uk with the branch code 713130.
Submissions can also be made via email to comments@postoffice.co.uk, by post to Freepost YOUR COMMENTS, or by telephone 03452 660115 or textphone 03457 223355.
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