A NEW Post Office is to open in Minehead to replace the branch which will close in June when the town centre Co-op supermarket shuts down.

West Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour has been assured a Minehead retailer ‘with experience operating a Post Office’ was in the final stages of the ‘onboarding process’.

The new Post Office will provide improved services and longer opening hours than are currently offered.

However, there will be a service gap of several weeks as the earliest the new Post Office can open will be in August.

Mrs Gilmour said the new agreement would secure the future of a Post Office for Minehead, without which the nearest service was two-and-a-half miles away in Dunster.

The current Post Office operates in-store in the Co-op, in The Avenue, which is closing following Somerset Council’s refusal of plans to redevelop the site with retirement flats and a modern convenience store-size supermarket.

Mrs Gilmour, said: “My constituents in Minehead need access to their postal services, something I know people have been concerned about after hearing the news of the Co-Op’s planned closure.

“I reached out to the Post Office immediately to seek reassurance on this matter for me and my constituents, and I have been pleased with the response.

“I am delighted the Post Office have identified an operator who can pick up the service in Minehead, and that they are in the final stages of the process of confirming that operator.

“I will keep working with Post Office UK to ensure this transfer is as smooth as possible for my constituents in Minehead, and that they are supported through any transition period.

“Keeping postal services in Minehead is the correct move by the Post Office, and I look forward to welcoming the new operator in due course, when they are announced.”