Woodley Shoppers Shocked by Post Office Closure

Morrisons Daily's post office in Woodley town centre is closing. The shop and post office are set to shut, with postal services ending on Wednesday, August 19. Morrisons Daily took over the branch from McColls in 2024.

There is hope another local business could host the post office, but shoppers say losing it would hit the area.

"It’s the only post office that I do use. I mainly come here for the post office, we don’t want to lose it, it will be a big loss."

"I’ve been here for over two decades, and there’s always been a post office there. It’ll really be awful to lose it. It looks like that’s what’s going to happen, but it’d be terrific if a post office could be kept."

Paul, often seen in the precinct, warned about access to cash: "I think that’s incredibly sad. I don’t know what people are going to do because that’s the place to go for drawing money, as there’s basically no banks here now. And if you haven’t got a bank, then you can go to the post office at least and then get some money out. I can’t believe everything’s closing. And it always seems to be the places that you can get money out. I think that’s terrible. I really do think that’s terrible."

The last place for banking in the precinct is Nationwide, after Lloyds closed on June 17.

Tony Wallace, who saw a banking hub in Dartmouth, said: "The five main banks hired a unit and each day they had a different bank working there. It just seemed like a good idea. I could understand not having five branches. But the fact that you could at least get access once a week to a bank was quite handy."

Deborah Gibson, who helps with church admin, said: "I send parcels all the time. I also work for a church, so I send marriage documents and things like that to the diocese, so I would have to find somewhere else."

"There are lots of other people who have been affected who don’t know where to bank their money or gain access to services. It’s all up in the air. Every time you ask someone, you get a different answer. So nobody knows, but if there was one in the precinct, that would help a lot of people."

Postal services continue to run at Brecon Road and Wheelers Green.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter