MP's campaign to get post office back for Fairlight
Hastings and Rye MP Helena Dollimore is calling on the Post Office to re-instate the counter at Fairlight Store.
Fairlight Store, on Battery Hill, re-opened as the main shop for the village at the end of June after being closed for a number of years after the popular owners retired. It had been the store and post office for the village for more than 90 years.
The store’s new owner Kamalharan Sivapuranathan has experience of being sub-postmaster at the successful village shop and post office at Iden, near Rye.
Ms Dollimore said: “Fairlight has a population of over 1,700, many of whom are over the age of 65. The nearest post office for villagers is over two miles away, a hilly walk along a busy road with no pavement for stretches. Bus services are infrequent and unreliable, meaning that for many local residents using a post office is impossible.
"The village and its residents are in dire need of post office services and now, with the new owner, we have the ideal opportunity to re-instate the post office in the shop where it is needed both for customers and to ensure that the shop is the success and community asset it deserves to be.”
The MP has contacted the Post Office chief executive to ask for its re-instatement and is awaiting a response.