Calls to retain local post offices at Dilton Marsh & The Ham

TWO communities fear they are losing important local facilities, with the future of their shops and post offices in doubt. 

Dilton Marsh Stores, which has a post office counter, will shut on Saturday 28th September.

The Ham post office and Spar Store, which has been ‘temporarily closed’ for some months now, is up for sale.

Their respective local communities fear this will be the end of important facilities for both the local area and further afield, which will never be resumed once lost.

Wiltshire councillor David Jenkins said, “The Ham Post Office is important to the community and has been so for many years. It’s used by a wide range of people with many of its customers coming from nearby villages, Westbury town and the trading estates.

“I am constantly being asked about the future of the post office and when it’s going to reopen.  Unfortunately I can say little, other than it’s closed for a temporary period. I have written to the Post Office Ltd stressing they make every effort to reinstate the post office as its services are needed by businesses and residents and that I look forward to this happening as soon as possible.”

A petition has been started in Dilton Marsh, calling to keep their facility open. One resident explained, “It will be gone forever if we, the local residents, don’t do something about it. We are running several petitions throughout the village that can be signed in support of keeping this facility open, as at the end of the day, it will be the locals young, elderly and alike that will lose something that is the heart of the community.”