Tudorville residents are full of hope after learning their Post Office may be kept open and chosen to run a pilot scheme.
Post Offices Ltd confirmed 19 of the 20 proposed Post Office closures in Herefordshire would go ahead – Tudorville being the exception.
Speaking to the Journal, a Post Office spokesman said: “The decision about Tudorville is imminent but that is all we are prepared to say at this stage.”
Residents and those involved in the Save Our Post Offices campaign welcomed the news and have high hopes that the Post Office will be saved in some form.
Maria Thomas and her husband Julian run the Tudorville General Stores where the Post Office is based. She said she was extremely grateful for the support of the community. She said: “People from all walks of life joined the campaign and we hadn’t realised we were touching so many lives; we have had tremendous support.”
The husband and wife team have been running the business for the past six years and have worked hard to provide the right service for the community. “We have tried to do as many improvements as possible to make it easy for people to use the Post Office and the shop. We have built a car park with parking for the disabled and we want to make things as convenient as possible for customers,” she said.
The county co-ordinator of the Save Our Post Offices campaign, Jesse Norman, welcomed the ‘glimmer of hope’ and vowed to keep campaigning to save another in the county – Redhill Post Office.
He said: “There is a glimmer of hope for Tudorville. But it is vital not to be complacent. This may be a false dawn. The Post Office has been planning to put in a new pilot service in Tudorville. But it has long been clear that they did not know what this ‘pilot’ actually meant, or which services it would include. So the delay may simply be to allow them to make up their minds!
“We must continue to fight the closure as hard as we can. The Post Office has now closed down the formal avenues of appeal. But I will be writing to Allan Leighton, the chairman of the Royal Mail, in a personal capacity to argue the case at the highest level. He is a Herefordian by birth, so it may be that he will understand the specific local reasons why both Tudorville and Redhill must stay open.”
Prospective Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Sarah Carr, who has also been active in the campaign, said: “I am hugely disappointed that Post Offices such as Llangrove and Bishopswood in South Herefordshire are closing, despite opposition from local people.
“Ross and Tudorville residents mounted a spirited campaign to save their very busy Post Office and many people wrote directly in to the consultation with their objections – Postwatch have responded. However, we cannot be complacent as Post Offices Ltd has the final say on any closure – the campaign for the future of Tudorville Post Office and the local community must continue.”