Packed public meeting hears good news (at last) for future of village stores of Post Office.
Villagers in Micheldever packed a public meeting in Northbrook Hall, this morning (Saturday morning Feb 23).
They gathered to hear plans for the future of their vilage shop and Post Office which has faced a very uncertain past few years.
In attendance was Ian Preece from the Post Office who gave a resume of the outreach ‘partner’ programme which will be used to ensure PO services remain at Micheldever Stores. A tremendous amount of hard work has been undertaken locally to reach a satisfactory outcome from the PO’s ‘Network Change’ programme and this will see services, remain similar to what we have now in Micheldever - from 9-5.30 Mon-Fri and from 9-1 on Sat.
Also in attendance were Andy & Rula Francis who are set to agree a lease with the landlord of the shop/house site to be the new shop tenants from March 1st 2008.
Local ward councillor, Barry Lipscomb said; "We have come a long way from the desperate situation we appeared to face in Micheldever when Steve Brine and I met Tim Nickolls last year with City Council leader, George Beckett."
Chairing the meeting was Parish Cllr Michael Radford alongside his fellow Micheldever Village Shop committee colleagues, Paul Knight, Juliet Winsor and Brian Cutler.
Prospective Winchester MP, Steve Brine said; “What a huge relief, this is the best possible outcome for people in Micheldever. If you had told us a year ago that we would start 2008 with new energetic tenants in the shop and continuing post office services in the village, we would have struggled to believe it. It is very sad that we had to expound so much energy negotiating with the Post Office to protect local services in the first place but it is all credit to them for coming up with a workable solution. All credit however, must go to the village committee for keeping the shop ticking over through some very difficult months. I hope people will now use the shop more than ever and secure it a long-term and thriving future.”
Pictured above; Steve Brine and Cllr Barry Lipscomb at the Micheldever Villages Stores.