Petworth Post Office and newsagent faces an uncertain future

Petworth's newsagent and Post Office in Lombard Street has asked for support to fight rising rates claiming they could spell the end of the business.

In a letter to Petworth town councillors Andrew Francis said he and his business partner Jamie Godin had run the Post Office and newsagents for the last 18 years.

They also delivered newspapers to around 200 customers in and around the area. But he said: “The Post Office are changing their remuneration structure resulting in many offices closing around the country. This is soon to affect us and as of September 30 we will lose our core payment which equates to £1200 a month.

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“With our current overheads the Post Office will become uneconomical to run.”

He said the non domestic rates for the shop had almost doubled in the last ten years and were now £8293.

“We feel we are an important business serving the local community and wish to apply for rate relief to enable us to keep the Post Office in Petworth.”

Tony Rogers told fellow councillors: “They provide a fantastic service and an awful lot of people rely on them.”

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Juliet Fynes said although people did much of their business online ‘you can’t post a parcel that way and this service is important’.

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