With Jean’s retirement and Mike needing to use the post office & shop space for his own purposes, the situation arose that unless a new venue could be found these critical services would be lost from the village. The post office has received some interest in taking on the post office services but the key issue has been access to appropriate property central to the village to allow these amenities to be accessed by all.

The interim solution retains the services at the current site for approximately 3 months with the Post Office services being provided by Terry of Woodchester Post Office and the shop run by Kevin Plank. Kevin will take on both services when they move to the new location.
Trevor, the new landlord at the Amberley Inn, has offered to convert his storage barn at the back of the Inn to provide the property and infrastructure. This will allow a larger site than present, just under 300sq ft, creating more display space to sell a wider range of products. If successful there is room for further expansion. Trevor is keen to have a fruit and veg stall for example and have the space to sell Christmas Tree etc.
Post Office Counters Ltd are supporting post offices changing from submasters to Post Office Local. This will allow the same services to be provided at present, except for international packages over 20kg. The change in Post Office Licence removes the existing minimal salary and going forward all post office income will be based on a tariff per transaction.
This will put more pressure on the shop to be commercially viable. The hope is that benefits from being managed by the Inn (ie no rent & services will be charged), purchasing synergies with the Inn and the larger facility will encourage more local shopping and interaction. Kevin is very keen to stock local produce and what locals want to buy. Please tell him.
Avening have recently completed a similar project with a Post Office Local and Shop behind the Cross Inn.
Work is now progressing to gain the necessary permissions to do the refurbishment of the Barn and to apply for the Post Office permissions. These will both take some time but there are very supportive and encouraging noises from all authorities.
It is hoped that charitable/local funds can be found to pay for the refurbishment to support Trevor in getting a stronger, bigger facility available in the village as he has limited access to capital and would not be able to do this without local support.
At the end of the day this will only be successful if we all use the shop and the post office on a more regular basis.