Topic: NEW POST OFFICE.....ALARM

[Shizzy]

It will certainly not be a main post office, the best you can expect is a basic service such as you get at The Ham or Bratton. A cashier serving you in between selling fags and energy drinks.

[Michael]

It is the privatised Post Office Ltd policy to close Post Offices, indeed in Trowbridge it is proposed that the Crown PO is closed and business moved to WH Smith.
Anyone who has used the PO in Trowbridge will know that it is a very busy office but the decision is based on profit before service.

[Dana Scully]

So when will we get our main post office back then?Also where will it be placed?

[baldy]

It's gone.

[Shizzy]

So when will we get our main post office back then?Also where will it be placed?

WE are not getting a main post office, we are getting a limited PO service (similar to The Ham / Bratton) in McColls

[baldy]

No-one was prepared to host it in their premises.

PO Ltd tried for over 2 years by going around speaking to shop-keepers and owners / managers in the town and advertising online to find premises for a three till PO service, then a 2 till service and then gave up and very specifically approached McColls again and agreed a 1 till service.

As a town councillor until I resigned last Summer, I set up and chaired a town council working group which looked at the possibility of the town council setting up and running a main PO in the town centre. Unfortunately, most town councillors were not prepared to support the sort of financial subsidy it would have needed, which would have been roughly equivalent to the council's current most expensive ongoing annual project - running The Laverton building, which loses about £30,000 ish a year (including "rent" received for the town council's own offices).

This was part of the reason I resigned off the town council. In reality I was deeply fed up with the role of being a town councillor anyway and just ran out of reasons to stay and was overwhelmed with reasons to use my time doing other things.

[Michael]

So when will we get our main post office back then?Also where will it be placed?

Martin McColls Store, 30 High Street, Westbury BA13 3BW, where it will be known as High Street Post Office.
Post Office Ltd have said that the opening hours for this Post Office will be 6.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Sunday.

[Shizzy]

Anyone used the Post Office counter in McColls yet?

[baldy]

I went in the shop and saw it yesterday.

It is a single counter which uses the right hand end of the existing counter when facing it as a customer.

The current open times are restricted "during training" to 9 - 5 every day except Sunday when it is closed.

[Shizzy]

OK, pretty much the same set up as The Ham and Bratton then.

[baldy]

Yup.