Post Office Aims to Return to Acton High Street |
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Will be advertising opportunities for local shops to host counter
January 10, 2024 Progress has been made on attempts to get the Post Office to return to Acton High Street after a five-year absence. A cross party group of councillors, business representatives and residents met Laura Tarling of the Post Office last Friday (22 December) with Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq joining the meeting on Zoom. During the meeting it was confirmed that the Post Office intends to reopen in the centre of town and an advertisement is to be placed on its website in January offering details of how local retailers will be able to set up a counter in their premises. This is represents significant progress from 2022 when the Post Office said that there were already four counters within a mile of the High Street and footfall was decreasing therefore it was not planning to return to the centre of Acton. Cash Access, which manages the Banking Hub in the Oaks Shopping Centre, has also decline requests to take on some postal services such as handling parcels and providing foreign exchange. Maire Lowe, who has been campaigning for Post Offices services to return since the closure of the branch on the Mount said, “This is another shot in the arm for the High Street. Joining the leisure centre, ActOne Cinema, and new restaurants, as well as the thriving businesses on adjacent Churchfield Road, Acton is a great place to live. We (the residents ) are very grateful for the support of all three political parties as well as Rupa Huq” The Post Office moved out of Acton in October 2018 and, apart from a few months in 2021 when a counter was opened at the northern end of Gunnersbury Lane in a branch of Budgens, the High Street area has been without Post Office services since.
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