TAMWORTH Borough Council has backed a replacement Post Office site.
The town is currently without a facility after the previous one, which was located in the Co-op on Church Street, closed at the end of July.
In response, a petition was launched – which has been signed by more than 1,500 residents – calling for a new Post Office in the town centre and highlighting the impact the closure is having on residents.
Anne Parsons, who started the petition, collected many of the signatures outside the Post Office.
She told councillors:
"I believe the numbers demonstrate how significant the level of support was for people in Tamworth to have a physical Post Office in the town centre.
"For people of all ages the Post Office is used very well; many people rely on it regardless of age and access issues. There are many services it provides that alternative services don’t accommodate or don’t offer.
"I understand the council is committed to working with the Post Office to identify new premises and open a replacement town centre Post Office and I welcome that commitment.
"I understand there are different views among traders about where the new Post Office should be located. What I’m asking for is that we have a commitment that the replacement is delivered with urgency, and let’s remember there are trained experienced postal workers who lost their jobs to redundancy and I know they would welcome the opportunity to apply for a new post."
Council leader Cllr Carol Dean proposed a motion which called for the authority to work with the Post Office to find a replacement site.
She said:
"What all members may not know is that prior to that closure, meetings were already taking place at the council and our officers were already speaking to the postmaster who ran the Post Office at the Co-op. We were already speaking to see what other options we were able to facilitate.
"These options are still on the table and we are waiting for the Post Office to make a decision on whether it will continue to back a town centre site. Ultimately, this is their decision and that’s the issue we have."
When asked if public funds will be used to secure a site in the town centre, the council leader replied that her opinion was the council needed to do 'as much as we possibly could'.
She said:
"We have had some conversations if it becomes that the Post Office would like to go into Ankerside.
"Then that becomes more of an issue for us about what we’re able to do for them and that would be for the council to decide what they’re willing to make and put forward.
"There are reasonable things we can do and there are unreasonable things we can do. We want this facility to be there, but we do have to have in mind how much public money that we spend on it, but we have talked about what the different options will be."
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