South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth and Councillor Archie Dryburgh have welcomed a proposal for Gretna Day Centre to take over the running of the town’s Post Office services.
Gretna Post Office is one of several across the region which are set to close after SPAR confirmed a number of their shops will no longer house the post office service.
Colin Smyth recently appealed to local community groups and shops to come forward to run post office services in the areas about to lose their office and a number have voiced an interest, including Gretna Day Centre who have been in touch with the local MSP and Councillor.
The local MSP and Councillor are now urging the Post Office to work with the Day Centre to explore the viability of services being run from their base at the Richard Greenhow Centre.
Colin Smyth said: “I have been speaking to a number of groups who are potentially interested in running one of the closure-hit branches but we’re at a very early stage and I’m delighted that Gretna Day Centre has come forward.
“The Day Centre is a brilliant asset in the town and the community is lucky to have it. I hope they are successful in their bid to take over the running of the Post Office as it would be ideally placed, being so close to the existing Post Office in SPAR, minimising disruption for people.
“While this will hopefully be good news story for Gretna, we also need someone to run other offices facing closure in Eastriggs, Thornhill and Georgetown, so I’m still appealing to any community groups or businesses who have an interest to come forward.”
Cllr Archie Drybrugh said: “I’ve been working with the Day Centre and Gretna and Rigg Community Council to take forward the centre’s bid to run the Gretna Post Office and it’s a positive proposal.
“With the town’s bank gone, we don’t want the community to lose anything else and there are a lot of people who rely on their local post office for all kinds of reasons.
“We’re hopeful that the Post Office will eventually move into the Day Centre, however, my message to the community would be: use it or lose it. If the Day Centre are successful in their bid, Post Office monitor how many people use the facility and in order to maintain decent opening hours, we need people to use it regularly.”
