Residents will have to wait until the end of the month before a lifeline service which closed in their Shropshire village reopens, it was announced today.

Wroxeter Post Office was originally due to open on August 3 at Wroxeter Hotel, near Shrewsbury, before it was postponed until Monday.

It has still not opened due to “operational difficulties” and now bosses at the hotel say they have been told by Post Office Ltd that the outreach service will not be opening until August 31.

Margot Foster, manager of Wroxeter Hotel, said: “They have been very apologetic and say it is due to equipment and technical errors. It is so disappointing because we have been gearing up for this for some time. We first made the offer to host a service over a year ago when they closed the parish rooms. We were supposed to open two weeks ago, then on Monday. I just hope this is it now.”

A spokeswoman for Post Office Ltd today said: “The opening of Wroxeter services had to be postponed due to operational difficulties. We would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience and the disappointment caused and we are working hard to resolve the situation and we will open the service as soon as possible.”

Wroxter’s original post office closed more than 18 months when the parish rooms which housed it shut.

It meant villagers were left without a post office in the village. The new outreach service will be open from 2.30pm to 5pm on Mondays and Thursdays.