Villagers fight to reopen post office

A campaign to reopen a Sussex village sub post office is being backed by South Downs MP Andrew Griffith.

Coldwaltham Post Office was closed back in September after the sub postmaster retired due to ill-health. But villagers have been fighting for it to reopen ever since. They say they have depended on it for more than 40 years.

MP Andrew Griffith has twice written to Post Office chief executive Nick Read to make the case for maintaining the service.

Coldwaltham Parish Council says the village has few services and that a petition to keep the post office has been signed by more than 300 residents.

Andrew Griffith has urged the Post Office to reconsider its decision on closing the Coldwaltham branch.

Announcing the closure, the Post Office said: “Post Office is facing a particularly challenging period, as are other high street retailers. The impact of rising costs, inflation and restrictions on our funding from Government mean that while we will always look to reopen branches when they close, we cannot commit to doing so in every instance.

"As part of our continuous review of the Post Office network, we will evaluate Post Office service provision in the area. We want to ensure customers can access our quality services and products across the Post Office network and it is important that any service is sustainable for both the operator and for Post Office Limited.

"We are committed to maintaining our access criteria so that 99 per cent of the UK’S population are within three miles of a Post Office and 90 per cent are within 1 mile.”