A VILLAGE’S threatened Post Office may have secured its long-term future following crunch talks, its postmaster has said.

The future of the Cumnor branch was in doubt following an assessment by the Post Office as part of its national transformation programme.

The overhaul sees some branches that share premises with shops facing a new set-up where the designated postal counter is scrapped, known as the ‘local model’.

Postmaster Sri Sathiapal initially feared this model would be unsustainable for his business and could force him to close, but after a meeting with the company on Thursday he believes it could work.

He said: “We had a positive meeting with Post Office Ltd and we may be able to switch to the local model but keep most of our services, which we didn’t think was possible.


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“If we can do this I can make sure the shop and post office will stay open for a long period of time.

“It will give us peace of mind, if they removed the post office our little shop wouldn’t survive.

A switch to the local model would still mean Mr Sathiapal would lose his postmaster’s salary.

But the alternative community branch status, which would have kept things the same, only applied to post offices where there was no other suitable retail outlet within half a mile.

Cumnor failed this test due to the nearby newsagents, butchers and two pubs in the village.

The local model sees some Post Offices lose services, such as taking cheques and handling parcels over 2kg, but Mr Sathiapal is hoping Cumnor will keep most of them.

The postmaster said this was especially important given he had been getting lots of custom from the Wootton branch, which lost services when it was localised.

He said: “The Wootton branch has lost services, for example they can no longer process cheques and people can’t go to them to pay the Inland Revenue.

“A lot of people have come to us for these services now.

“There is an elderly lady who relies on a neighbour to pay her bills at the post office via cheque and this can no longer be done at Wootton so she comes to us.”

Post Office spokesman Sheila Tapster said: “The postmaster and her husband are working closely with the Post Office to decide the best future for the business and the Post Office branch.

“The Post Office is committed to maintaining a Post Office in Cumnor.”

Last year Kidlington’s main post office moved into the Co-operative and Burford’s branch relocated to a nearby newsagents and Witney’s central post office moved to WHSmith.