4 July 2013
Waveney MP Peter Aldous has welcomed the news that Rigbourne Hill Post Office in Beccles is is to be saved, moving to Premier Stores on Rigbourne Hill.

Peter Aldous has worked with Councillor Graham Catchpole to save the post office after listening to Beccles constituents concerns. Peter and Graham met with senior representatives of both the Co-op and then the Post Office last summer to emphasise the importance of the post office to the area and to discuss ways in which it could be retained. They pointed out that many people, who do not have access to transport are dependent on the Post Office and the difficulties that they would face in getting to the Post Offices in the town centre or Worlingham.

Responses to the Post Office on the future of the post office were largely in favour of the proposed move, with all in support in favour of the longer opening times available at the new location.

The new local style Post Office will operate from an open plan till, located at the shop counter, enabling customers to carry out a wide range of Post Office products and services alongside retail transactions

The service will open at the new location, 300 metres from the previous location on Thursday 5 September 2013. The premises have level access, with a wide door. Internally, there will be space for a wheelchair and a hearing loop. Roadside and layby parking is available, outside the premises.

Mr Aldous said:

"I am very pleased that this important local service will remain open in new premises and with extended opening hours. The Post Office have listened to the concerns that Graham Catchpole and I raised with them and immediately understood why post office services are so important to those in the Rigbourne Hill area."

Councillor Catchpole added:

"We are nearly at the end of an eighteen month campaign to maintain a Post Office in south Beccles. I would like to congratulate Raj, the new owner of the shop, for the excellent modernisation work which he has invested in and carried out. We now all need to support the shop and the Post Office to ensure that we keep this facility; it has to be used. Use it or lose it again. I am now working on improving the car parking area outside all the shops at the top of Rigbourne Hill to encourage customers from a wider Beccles area."

| Rigbourne Hill Post Office Letter