Our Post Office will re-open on 24 June 2024 and will run on Monday and Thursday from 9am to noon. This will be on a trial basis until December 2024 and continued operation after that will depend on a high level of use by the community.
Post Office Limited (POL) have agreed to the re-opening following months of campaigning and negotiations with the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee.
If you wish to contact us on this issue, please email sandhamhall@gmail.com.
The next step
- We will re-open our Post Office on 24 June 2024 for six months on a trial basis.
- We will ensure that the community is aware that if the Post Office is not used it will be closed permanently at the end of the year.
- We will promote the POst Office to the community and to those passing on the A29.
The story so far
On 14 Sep 2023 our Post Office was abruptly closed down with no community consultation. At the time, Post Office Limited (POL) stated that the use of the premises had been withdrawn by the Village Hall which was untrue. It also claimed low usage but has been unwilling to share their evidence of this with us. We all reacted strongly to this sudden closure; thanks to all of you who wrote to our MP and/or signed a petition. This was submitted on 16 Nov 2023.
On 7 Feb 2024 two members of the Parish Council and the chair of the Village Hall Committee met virtually with a representative of POL and got them to agree to receive a proposal for a six-month trial to test whether a “use it or lose it” campaign coupled with signage on the A29 to pull in passing trade could make a three morning a week service viable. You can download the full proposal here.
On 4 Apr 2024 this proposal was rejected by POL. However, they offered a 2-hour a week service (eg Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:30am).
On 14 Apr 2024 we launched a Community Consultation which ran until 26 Apr 2024.
On 27 Apr 2024 a summary of what you said was published here and in the pub and Village Hall.
On 29 Apr 2024 we sent the results of the community consultation to Post Office Limited (POL) and requested permission to run our own six month trial of a 3-morning a week service with a target start date of 3 June 2024.
On 15 May 2024 POL responded with an offer to run a 2-hour a week service to be expanded to 6 hours a week after three months:
On 21 May 2024 we responded pointing out the problems with POL’s proposal and requested their support for a 6 hours a week – 9am to noon on Monday and Thursday and this proposal was accepted:
Last updated: 4-May-2024
