By RUTH LOGNONNE ruth.lognonne@hexham-courant.co.uk

Last updated at 10:03, Friday, 12 March 2010

A NORTH Tyne village’s plea to have its post office returned to its local shop has been rejected.

Instead the post van, which has been visiting Humshaugh since January last year, will continue to run.

Post Office Ltd has ruled out a move into the shop, it says, because it could affect the viability of the outreach mobile service which operates throughout the district.

And the company has indicated it may add Simonburn and Mickley to the existing outreach service.

Humshaugh lost its post office counter in 2008 despite a passionate campaign by residents to save it.

The villagers decided to focus their energy on saving what was left of the shop and, on November 1 last year, a team of more than 40 volunteers took over the running of the store.

Last month, representatives of the volunteer group, Humshaugh Community Ventures, had a meeting with officials from Post Office Ltd because a review of the one-year-old mobile outreach service was taking place.

They were hoping to persuade them that a post office counter in the shop would be a better service than the mobile van, which only visits on weekday lunchtimes.

And they argued that the need was even greater since their next nearest post office at Simonburn had been closed a year earlier.

Parish councillor and Humshaugh Community Ventures director, Dick Moules, said: “The village shop is about to be re-fitted and we could easily have accommodated a small post office counter that would have been available all of the time that the shop is open.”

First published at 09:46, Friday, 05 March 2010
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk