A LEADING official is to meet town councillors next month to put them in the picture on post office provision in Wellington, writes Barry Knott.

The town has been without a post office since the One Stop in High Street closed nearly two years ago.

Town clerk Dave Farrow said yesterday: “Richard Hall, external affairs manager, South England and Wales, Post Office Ltd, will be meeting with town councillors on Tuesday, July 13, to discuss Post Office provision in the town. This follows a meeting he attended of the Somerset West and Taunton Council’s [SWT] scrutiny committee earlier this year when the then mayor Janet Lloyd invited him to come and meet with councillors to discuss plans for reinstating a post office in the town.

“Details of where the meeting will be held are still to be finalised and will be dependent on whether Covid-19 restrictions are still in place, and to what degree, or not. Further details will be published when they are finalised.”

Mr Hall has always maintained the Post Office was ‘still advertising and looking for a new partner’ to restore a branch in Wellington. He said this when he was quizzed at a special meeting of SWT’s scrutiny committee last month.

Cllr Lloyd, who is also a district councillor, managed to persuade Mr Hall to agree to meeting town councillors in ’June or July’ but he was unable to attend this month to discuss more detail about the situation in Wellington.

Wellington has a growing population and desperately needs a post office. The nearest is a branch at Rockwell Green which provides excellent service. But many elderly people have to use public transport or rely on lifts from family and friends.

They then often have to queue on the pavement outside in all winds and weathers because the premises are small.

Hundreds of new homes are being built in and around Wellington putting extra pressure on the infrastructure of the town.

The Post Office says it has a target to increase the network from about 11,500 branches to 12,000 nationally by 2025.

It was also intended that by 2025 the Post Office would be a profitable organisation no longer in need of Government cash.