Post offices are a core part of any local community for a variety of reasons. They provide vital services to people in need of sending mail, paying bills, buying stamps, and withdrawing pensions as well as being trusted places to deposit and withdraw money. Having somewhere that you can visit to fulfil those essential tasks is very important to our community in Barrow – particularly to those whose access to the internet and online services is limited.

So, since the closing down of our original post office, it has been important that a replacement was found.

This originally came in the form of a post office van which would visit Barrow to allow residents access to the basic services that the post office would usually provide, on a fairly regular basis. However, in recent months, we have lost our post office van, leaving us with no service in Barrow. Now, if residents need to visit a post office, they need to travel to Quorn or Sileby (where branches are one-and-a-half and three miles away, respectively).

One person who has been campaigning to help get our post office back is Jane Hunt MP. She has had many residents in Barrow contact her about the issue and she has tried to take action to support us in getting a new one in an existing shop.

Initially, Jane held a meeting with Barrow Parish Council and representatives from the Post Office, to discuss what could be done to restore the service. She wrote to, and visited, businesses in Barrow to find out if they would be interested in having a post office in their shop, and to explain to them the benefits of a local retailer hosting this service.

If a business hosts a ‘post office local’, as they are known, they can receive the dual benefit of being known as the business to bring back a post office to Barrow and benefit from increasing customer footfall in their shop. In terms of revenue, the Post Office offers a payment per transaction, giving the business an additional source of income.

Recently, Jane used her place on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee, to question the chief executive officer of Post Office, Nick Read, on what the wider problem is for Barrow in getting a post office.

In a follow up letter, he responded specifically to the situation we have in Barrow and said that despite extensive efforts and community support, they have been unable to find a business to host a new branch. They are no longer advertising for a branch, but should a local business come forward they would be pleased to consider it.

Although it is unfortunate that we are still without a post office, there is every opportunity for one of the businesses in Barrow to come forward to offer to host.

Is anyone out there interested?

Xander Dolby-Campbell