TOWN councillor for Rockwell Green Marcus Barr says he has no fears the local post office will close once it has been sold.

The post office and convenience store at Rockwell Green, now up for sale, has been Wellington’s only post office since the closure of One Stop shop in the town’s High Street more than two years ago.

Efforts to establish a new town centre location have come to nothing despite interest from several sources.

The owners of the Rockwell Green shop, Haran and Meera Niranjan, originally from Sri Lanka, are retiring after nearly 20 years running the service.

The business is for sale at £440,000, which includes a four-bedroom house and garden as well as the shop. The details list the Post Office turnover at £73,743 with a further £161,447 from the retail trade.

“If you’re going to pay more than £400,000 for the shop and house, you’re hardly likely to want to close the post office,” said Cllr Barr. “It’s always busy, often with queues outside.

“The owners are not going to sell to someone who doesn’t have the interests of the people of Wellington and Rockwell Green at heart. I think it will be an ordinary transition from one owner to another.”

But John Thorne, a town councillor and member of the council’s PO working group, is not so optimistic about the sale. He said: “This is a bolt from the blue for Wellington because although it is far from ideal for the town, at least the post office in Rockwell Green is keeping the service going for us.

“It is a really worrying turn of events for the town because we do not know if any new owner would want to keep the post office side of the business.

“The nearest post office if Rockwell Green closed would be in Oake and I think there would not be many residents in the town who would find it convenient to make that journey.”

Since the closure of the town centre post office the Rockwell Green facility has been very busy, especially at Christmas. However, the difficulty of parking nearby has caused problems with neighbours at peak times – not least with the pub over the road. Ironically, the Barley Mow itself closed last month.

The selling agents of the Rockweel Green store are Humberstones.