Post office finally reopens after ‘unacceptable’ closure

A busy Perthshire post office has reopened after a three-month closure.

The Craigie branch was shut down suddenly in September, forcing customers to use other outlets in the city centre, Muirton or Oakbank.

Post Office bosses have now confirmed that the service in the Abbot Street Premier store has now resumed.

They have never revealed why the outlet closed in the first place, stating only that it was due to “operational reasons”.

A spokeswoman said: “We are really pleased we’ve been able to restore services for the community of Craigie.”

It will run from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 10pm and on Sundays between 10am and 10pm.

Local Liberal Democrat councillor, Willie Wilson, said he was relieved the post office had been reinstated.

“The people of Craigie were left without this service for three months and that was unacceptable,” he said.

“We have never been told what caused this closure and it would probably be unhelpful to speculate about that.

“But I hope that measures will be put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

No one from the Premier store could be reached for comment. The Post Office’s High Street branch in Crieff also recently closed its doors.

More than a quarter of Scotland’s post offices have disappeared since 2002.

Rural communities have been among the hardest hit, with 22% of rural branches closing during that period. Campaigners say the scale of the decline has been masked by a large number of “temporary” branch closures, some of which have lasted as long as five years.