The Royal Mail has announced plans to close Stafford’s main post office and move all operations into the town’s WH Smith store.

The shock news came this morning – when town MP David Kidney was consulted on the new layout of the Greengate Street store by the postal service.

He said: “Royal Mail did not come to me to ask whether this should happen – just to talk about the details of the re-design.

“They told me that the decision to close has already been made.  

“I am horrified, the post office is constantly busy and is one of Stafford’s most historic buildings. I will be asking them in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this move.”

Read the full story in the Express & Star. 

The Royal Mail has announced plans to close Stafford’s main post office and move all operations into the town’s WH Smith store.

The shock news came this morning – when town MP David Kidney was consulted on the new layout of the Greengate Street store by the postal service.

He said: “Royal Mail did not come to me to ask whether this should happen – just to talk about the details of the re-design.

“They told me that the decision to close has already been made.  

“I am horrified, the post office is constantly busy and is one of Stafford’s most historic buildings. I will be asking them in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this move.”

The post office building was once the home of famous playwright Richard Sheridan and is an iconic building within the heart of Stafford town centre.

Mr Kidney said: “Whilst I am aware of Royal Mail’s overall policy to move more services into modern stores this news about Stafford’s post office comes out of the blue. When smaller post offices were closed in Stafford in recent years, Royal Mail said that the custom could all transfer to our Crown Post Office. 

“This has led to a big rise in footfall there, so much so that I recall a day last year when I passed a queue of customers that stretched across the whole of the pavement outside. It was particularly upsetting when the Doxey post office was closed and customers made to travel to Mill Bank for post office services.

“I genuinely question the ability of the WH Smith store in Stafford to take all this trade and offer an acceptable standard of service to post office customers and its own existing customers.”

Richard Hall, spokesman for Royal Mail said: “Stafford is one of 70 post office across the country that will be run from WH Smith stores. Of the 14,000 post offices across the country we only own 458 and make losses of around £70 million a year.

“There will be a consultation process on issues such as access but the decision to close, which was commercial, has already been made.

“The consultation will be finalised by the end of July and while there are no details on when the Stafford post office will relocate, it will be at some point within 18 months of that date.”

He said he was unsure as to whether Royal Mail owns the building and does not know what will happen to it when the post office moves out.

Sarah Heath, spokesman for WHSmith said: “We held a trial last year, where post office service were offered in six stores and it was very successful.”