Shropshire Star

Call to move Ludlow Post Office into town library

Councillors in Ludlow are appealing for the town's main post office to be moved into its library in a bid to protect both services.

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Calls are being made for discussions to be opened between Shropshire Council and the Post Office to protect the two valued services in Ludlow.

Ludlow's main post office is currently in the One Stop convenience store on Tower Street, but with the store planned to be redeveloped into a restaurant and flats it is soon likely to have no home.

Councillor Andy Boddington, Shropshire Council ward member for Ludlow North, said that moving the post office inside the library may generate revenue for it and increase its opening hours.

Councillors have previously warned that plans to close the library in Parkway at 5pm instead of 7.30pm on Fridays, and 1pm instead of 5pm on Saturdays may be a slippery slope to losing the service all together.

Mr Boddington said: "Rather than seeing this as a disaster we are seeing it as an opportunity for the future.

"If the post office has to move, the most sensible place would be to put it inside the library.

"That way there would be three big customer services there, the Shropshire Council advisory department, the library and the post office.

"They are three very similar services, they are skilled workers dealing with customer services."

Mr Boddington said, not only would having the post office within the library generate funds for the service, the longer opening hours required for the post office to operate could mean that the library is also open longer.

Fears over the fate of Ludlow Library in particular have been raised in recent weeks, with a petition asking MP Philip Dunne to step in and support a campaign to ensure services are not lost now with more than 800 signatures, and vocal support for the library from both TV personality Jo Brand and her mother Joyce Brand, a well-known campaigner who lives in the town.

He said: "We are trying to make the service bigger, better and more vibrant.

"At this stage it is just an idea but we want Shropshire Council and the Post Office to talk and discuss it between them.

"We want to do it early on because further down the line, decisions may be made which will make it more difficult.

"There is lots of discussion at the moment of transfer of services all over the county and we just want the post office included within that frame."

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