Shop fills post office closure (From Oxford Mail)

Shop fills post office closure

3:40pm Friday 10th April 2009

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Villagers who lost their post office can now send parcels direct from the community shop.

More than 1,000 people petitioned the Government not to close the sub post office in Iffley, Oxford, last year.

Their efforts failed, and the post office in Church Way became one of 22 in Oxfordshire shut in a cost saving measure.

The post office closed in June and since then people living in the village and neighbouring Rose Hill have had to walk to Cowley, Littlemore or Donnington to send packages too big for local post boxes.

But the Iffley Community Shop, which housed the post office, has introduced a scheme where parcels will be collected four days a week.

The not-for-profit shop, which is staffed purely by volunteers, asked a carpenter to create a big red box where it will store the parcels.

Shop chairman Suzette Reynolds said: “It is great. We are doing what the village asked for.

“We see ourselves as being a focus of the village in a lot of ways, and we aim to always respond to its needs.

“We have quite a few elderly people in the village who do not drive and they really need that facility.”

Shop managers are currently looking at introducing a recorded delivery service in addition to the parcel collections.

Customers can already check the weight and cost of sending items at the village store.

Alan Whitaker, 59, from Anne Greenwood Close, said: “It was a real blow when we lost the post office just under a year ago.

“This is a great service they are offering. It is really enterprising.

“To have pretty much a full postal service in the shop is really an enormous help.”

David Penwarden, spokesman for the Friends of Iffley, added: “We are delighted. It will help make the shop much busier.

“We have a number of people who buy and sell on the eBay website and it will enable them to use the shop more.

“We also have a number of elderly people in the village who want to send parcels but don’t have transport.”

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