Leam Post Office moves to Spar supermarket

The main post office of Leamington Spa is to be relocated to a the Spar supermarket in December 2014.

The Post Office is currently housed at 1 Priory Terrace, but will close permanently at 4pm on Saturday 14 December.

Building work has begun in the Spar store on Leamington Spa’s Bath Street and the new Post Office is expected to open on Monday 16 December.

Margaret and David Ingham, who own the Spar supermarket, have expressed an interest in continuing the services offered by the current Post Office, preserving the current number of counters. All of the Post Office’s current employees will also move to the Old Town store.

There will also be the opportunity for customers to access Post Office services at a ‘combination counter’ during the Spar’s opening hours.

The new closing hours of 10pm Sunday to Thursday and 11pm on Friday and Saturday will be an improvement on those of 1 Priory Terrace. The store will also be opening 8.30am every day but Sunday and closing at 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 4pm on Saturday.

With regards to the move of the Post Office, second-year Economics student Phillip Stoneman told the Boar: “It would be good if that means that the Post Office is more convenient for those who use it.”

Third-year History student Emma Stewart thought differently: “I like the current building and it makes sense for it to be next to the Royal Mail depot.”

On the Spar store itself, Mrs Ingham told the Leamington Courier: “We have spent the last two years trying to bring this shop back into the right century.”

She added:  “The Post Office was becoming unviable so it makes sense for them to move to an existing business.”

In March 2013, the number  of Post Offices in the UK stood at 11,780, the vast majority of which are franchises of Post Office Ltd, which is a state-owned limited company which became independent of the Royal Mail Group on 1 April 2012.

On November 27, parliamentary under-secretary of state for business, innovation and skills Jo Swinson told parliament that “the Government are committing a further £640 million in funding to the post office network for the three years 2015-16 to 2017-18.”