THE MP for Taunton and Wellington has met with the Postal Affairs Minister in a push to reinstate the local post office.

On Tuesday, March 18, Gideon Amos MP met the Postal Affairs Minister, Gareth Thomas, in London as part of his campaign for the return of a post office to Wellington.

The town has been without the facility since 2019 when the One Stop convenience store in High Street, which housed it, closed. The nearest post office is now at Rockwell Green.

Mr Amos recently led a debate in Parliament on the future of the postal service and has also launched a Wellington Post Office petition which has been signed by more than 300 people.

He said: “Meeting the Postal Affairs Minister was an important next step following the debate I led in the Commons chamber a few weeks ago on the importance of local post offices and the need for a post office in Wellington.

“The meeting was a really good opportunity to focus the Minister’s attention fully on Wellington’s lack of a post office.

“I was able to explain that, while it was really good to work with Cash Access UK and to open the new banking hub, what the town really needs is to see a part office restored to the town.

“We discussed several options to bring a post office back to Wellington and the Minister invited me to follow up in writing and to consider, with the Post Office, what can be done.”

On Friday, January 3, Mr Amos and the town’s Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, officially opened Wellington’s permanent Banking Hub in Fore Street which features the Post Office logo on its signage, but does not offer postal services.

During last month’s Commons debate, Mr Amos said people in Wellington felt “misled and let down” that, when the banking hub opened, they went inside the building to discover it did not provide any Post Office services.

Mr Amos said: “As we can all see, in this case, there is an obvious and straightforward solution: we should allow banking hubs to offer postal services.

“There is no fundamental reason why they cannot. They already have Post Office tills and Post Office systems. They are run by postmasters and postmistresses and staffed by Post Office staff.

“The one in Wellington even has two banking desks and space for a third desk, presumably awaiting a post office counter.

“That would be a very good use of the remaining space in a building with ‘Post Office’ written above the door.

“Perhaps most importantly, having spoken to Post Office staff, I know that they would be very keen to offer such services in banking hubs.”

In November, the Post Office announced it would be closing 115 independent branches having reported pre-tax losses of £81m in 202/23.

According to the annual report from that year, nearly half of the Post Office branches were not profitable. The service is now increasingly reliant on government subsidy and the retail side of the business.