Brighton post office to reopen at new location

The Islingword Road branch was said to be plagued by thefts and rising costs

An East Sussex post office which closed its doors last year following the postmaster's resignation has moved to a new location.

In June 2024 Sean Sherman said he was giving up the running of the branch on Brighton's Islingword Road due to rising thefts and increasing running costs.

Mr Sherman, who first took on the business in 2015, handed back the keys a few weeks later.

It will reopen under new management on Tuesday on the town's Down Terrace.

"We never really recovered from Covid," said Mr Sherman, speaking at the time about his decision to close.

"Thefts have gone up and my overheads are not going to reduce."

His father also having run a nearby post office in the 1980s, Mr Sherman added that roughly £100 of stock would go missing a week in 2023, increasing to between £300 and £400 each week in 2024.

A Post Office spokesperson said the new branch - renamed Down Terrace Post Office - would "restore service to the community", adding that it will be open 49 hours a week.

The opening hours will be Monday to Friday from 09:00 BST to 18:00 BST, and from 09:00 BST to 13:00 BST on Saturdays.

There will be also be a shop inside, with similar products and services available as before.

The number of standard post offices in the UK decreased by 931 between 2013 and 2023.

However, the number of outreach post offices, which are part-time services at community locations or mobile vans, increased from 1,065 in 2013 to 1,923 in 2024, making a total of 858.