THE most likely way for a Post Office to re-open in Wellington was for a retailer to step forward and offer to take on a franchise, town councillors were told last week.

Post Office regional external affairs manager Richard Hall met councillors via video conferencing, just a month short of the second anniversary of the closure of Wellington’s town centre branch.

The town has been served by Rockwell Green Post Office since the branch in High Street was lost when the One Stop convenience store closed in August, 2019.

At the time, it was expected the closure would be short-lived as a business new to the town hoped to take on the franchise and be up and running within six months, but the venture fell through when terms could not be agreed with the Post Office.

Mr Hall told councillors he was optimistic that fresh interest in a franchise might be shown as the country came out of the pandemic measures which had so severely hit the economy.

He said a Wellington Post Office franchise was currently being advertised on a website called runapostoffice.co.uk where it was estimated a postmaster could earn up to £12,000 a year.

The model was a Post Office Local, where services could be integrated into a ‘vibrant and sustainable retail business, so they can be offered over the same opening hours’.

Mr Hall believed with some extra effort it could easily be possible to increase the income from a franchise, which would make it even more attractive to sit alongside a retail operation.

He said although the Post Office had taken a huge hit financially with falling income during the Covid crisis it still had funds available to help with set up costs of a new branch, estimated at £12,000 to £15,000.

Mr Hall said: “The Post Office can provide finance for that if necessary and Wellington would probably have a strong enough case to get a Post Office off the ground.

“We still want to return a service to our customers in Wellington. We realise just having a branch in Rockwell Green is not ideal and not sufficient, and we do want another branch to support our customers in the area.

“But you do need a retail partner to come on board and take a service forward in Wellington. We have had interest but unfortunately none of that has come to fruition.

“If a retailer wants to set up a new Post Office in Wellington there is money there but they will need to make an investment in the retail site as well.”

Mr Hall said a new ‘drop and collect’ model of Post Office was being trialled across the country and might be the simplest form of branch to open in Wellington.

Full report in today’s WWN