Temporary post office to open up for an extra day a week

Councillor’s from Barnsley’s south area agreed to spend the cash to open much-needed Post Office in Wombwell Library open on Wednsdays.

Currently, the Post Office is only open on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, with limited opening hours.

Wombwell Post Office moved out of Heron Foods on the High Street intothe library in January, and The Post Office say they are “working to secure apermanent solution on the High Street and take over the Post Office function in the longer term.”

The request to open the branch on Wednesdays was made to the libraries service, and the cash will be used for the libraries facilities team to open and close the building, as well as clean it.

A report to the south area council states that “facilities management are able to open and close the building and provide the additional cleaning.

“The charges to open the library are £54.38 per week, total cost of £1,414 for a six month period.”

Councillor Robert Frost told the meeting that the Post Office is “well-used,” and that the staff from the Birdwell branch who are temporarily running the Wombwell branch are “happy” to open the facility on Wednesdays.

Councillor Chris Lamb voiced his concerns to the meeting that the funding to open the Post Office is coming from council resources, rather than the Post Office itself.

“The post offices are very very profitable organisation these days, I’m sure the shareholders are very happy at that,” he told the meeting.

“I just wonder if the post office rather than the council could take some of the responsibility.

“Even with things like Post Offices, when things go wrong, the council gets the blame. I don’t quite think that’s very fair.

“This has demonstrated the council’s determination to make sure that this essential facility remains in Wombwell.”

Councillor Tim Shepherd added that the cash from the south area council should be a “one-off”.