Search is on to find a new home for Westbury’s post office

Fears continue to grow in the town over the future of Westbury’s main post office. However, the town council has said it will actively look into finding a suitable premises in the town for the post office to move to.

Westbury Town councillors agreed the council should be proactive in finding a new venue for the post office before it closes at The Co-operative supermarket in October this year. The council agreed that businesses in the town should be contacted to see if they would consider taking on the franchise.

Councillor Russell Hawker suggested Morrisons and McColls be approached as they were the most likely to be capable to accommodate a post office.

Cllr Hawker said, “We do all fear that we might end up without a post office in the town but this council needs to be seen to be doing something. There is no harm in speaking to these businesses.

“There are a lot of people in the town who would  be upset that, not only have they no longer got a post office, but that we didn’t do anything about it.”

Suggestions were made by councillors that empty units in the town could be  potential venues for the post office, but councillor Sue Ezra quashed these suggestions saying it would cost too much money.

Cllr Ezra said, “Under no circumstances will the Post Office open premises as a stand alone – it simply won’t make enough money. It would have to open within another business, but this also costs a lot of money. The business would have to refit its shop to post office standards and would have to pay for this themselves as the Post Office would not fund it. It’s not as easy and straight forward as people might think.”