A temporary outreach postal service is being launched in Yoxford this month, one year after the village’s Post Office closed.

The hosted outreach service will be operated by the postmaster from Saxmundham Post Office at Yoxford Village Hall from next week.

The service will run from 9am to 12noon every Monday and Wednesday and will offer a range of Post Office services, with the exception of car tax renewal.

Banking and credit card services will also be available.

The village’s former Post Office closed in July last year following the resignation of the postmaster.

A spokeswoman for the Post Office said this week: “We are delighted to be opening the temporary hosted outreach service and we hope to be in a position to reopen Yoxford Post Office at its previous location in the next three to five months. The new operator of the tearoom at that location has applied to run the Post Office alongside the tea room.”

Post Office field change advisor Wendy Hamilton said: “We are pleased to be able to reinstate the service in the village hall while we continue to seek a permanent solution.

“I know that the local community will join me in welcoming this good news and hope that customers will continue to use the branch.”

The news has been welcomed by Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey, who said: “I have been pressing for the return of Post Office services in Yoxford for some time.

“I had a meeting with the previous business secretary (Vince Cable) in the last parliament, who raised the issue with the chief executive of the Post Office.

“I’m delighted the service has been resumed for Yoxford residents.

“It is important that a permanent service with longer opening hours is established soon and I will continue to press the Post Office to deliver this.”

Dr Coffey had previously criticised the Post Office for giving her constituents a “much poorer service” and said it was being “inflexible” to providing a suitable replacement service.

Yoxford parish councillor Clive Connolly said both the temporary service and the new permanent facility would be welcomed by people in the village.

He said: “It was used quite a lot. There’s quite an elderly population in the village so we really need it.

“It would be very welcome. The councillors have had people approach them saying how much they miss the old one.

“We would all like to see it go back in there. It was a good service and we do miss it.”

Mr Connolly added that not only was it difficult for some residents to visit nearby Post Offices in Peasenhall and Saxmundham, but that the village had also lost a community hub, with many visiting the Post Office tearoom at the same time as using the postal and banking services.

“It was very well used and very popular and hopefully it will be again,” said Mr Connolly.

“From the parish council’s side of it, we would be in favour of it and we would back it any way that we could.”