Isle of Wight: Newport post office to return after two-year campaign

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Post officeImage source, Lewis Stickley
Image caption,

Isle of Wight Council worked with local groups to bring the service back

A post office is set to return to the Isle of Wight after a campaign to get it reopened.

The branch inside Newport High Street's Central Convenience Store will start serving again on 29 November.

Local groups worked with Isle of Wight Council to bring the service back after it closed in February 2021.

The Post Office said it would always look to reopen a branch if it was "commercially viable", even after a number of years.

Shaping Newport, a collaboration between Newport Business Association, Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council and Isle of Wight Council, worked to restore the service.

Councillor Julie Jones-Evans said: "This is great news for Newport... having a post office in the heart of the island's county town is very important to local residents, many of whom have been in touch with me about it.

"Using the post office is an important part of visiting the shops for a lot of people, so other businesses will [also] benefit..."

Karim Aziz, a Post Office spokesperson, said: "Where it's commercially viable to reopen a branch that closes, then we will look to do that, even if it does take several years."

In the organisation's most recent network report published in 2022, there were 24 new Post Office branches opened in the south-east of England between March 2021 and March 2022.

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