West Wight post office to close as Royal Mail stops post collection

An Isle of Wight post office will close its doors on Saturday (March 30) amid Royal Mail’s decision to stop collecting parcels and post.

Island Community Ventures, owned by local charity Community Action IW, has made the ‘difficult decision’ to close the Totland Post Office outreach service.

The decision comes in response to a recent notification from Royal Mail that it will stop collecting parcels from Totland Post Office on April 1.

The withdrawal of Royal Mail's collection services will ‘significantly increase’ running costs for the outreach service, which already requires subsidies from Totland Parish Council and Community Action IW.

These funds cover the time and cost of taking post and parcels to the main post office branch in Godshill.

While Royal Mail is technically within its contractual rights to discontinue collections from an 'outreach' service, local frustration mounts as the postal service continues to collect from the postbox almost directly opposite Totland Post Office.

Mike Bulpitt, chief executive of Community Action IW, expressed disappointment over the closure, stating: “With the support of Totland Parish Council, we’ve delivered this outreach service for a number of years since the previous sub-postmaster retired, and it is frustrating that we cannot continue, especially as it is a well-used service.

“Unfortunately, even when well used, it doesn’t make it economically viable, and the additional operating costs incurred as a result of the change by Royal Mail means that we will have to close.”

Island Community Ventures will continue to run Godshill Post Office and weekly outreach services in Wootton and Brading, with backing from local parish councils.

The nearest post services for Totland residents are now in Yarmouth and Tesco in Freshwater.