WELLINGTON will be without a main Post Office for at least the next six months.

The Post Office inside the One Stop convenience store closed at 1pm on Saturday with a notice placed in the window describing the closure as ‘temporary’.

An ‘interested party’ is putting together plans to re-open it and the WWN has learned that the Post Office is expected to give its approval in the next two to three weeks.

But it is understood it could take at least six months for the new premises to be ready for business, making any re-opening unlikely until early in the New Year.

The One Stop in High Street is also set to shut down on Saturday week with business rates and rent having made it unprofitable. Fifteen jobs – mostly part-time – are affected by the two closures.

The ‘interested party’ is a relative newcomer to the town and is understood to be looking for suitable premises to open the Post Office on a permanent basis.

Until then, Wellington customers have been advised to go to the nearest alternative Post Offices in Rockwell Green, about one mile from One Stop, and in Oake.

Town councillor John Thorne, who is also one of Wellington’s two county councillors, told the WWN this week: “I know it is still quite a shock to many residents that we have actually ‘lost’ our Post Office, because people never really believed it would come to this.

“Most people seemed to think the Post Office would make sure the service would continue until a new postmaster or woman was found to take over.

“And that is the point I was making at our recent town council meeting because the Post Office is a Government-owned business and therefore there should be an obligation on it to step in and directly run the service until a replacement is found.

“We have written to our MP Rebecca Pow making this point and asking her to press Ministers to bring in regulations to that effect.

“Although I am not a regular user of the Post Offices in Rockwell Green and Oake I know they offer a great service to their customers but they cannot provide the full range that was available in the One Stop premises.

“The good news, if we can look beyond the six-month gap, is that the new temporary Post Office for Wellington will be in the town centre and will offer the full range of services that we were used to receiving in the One Stop Post Office.”

The Post Office at Rockwell Green opens at 7am and closes at 6pm.

It does not provide DVLA and passport services.