East Hagbourne Post Office petition heading to parliament

Olly Glover, MP for Didcot and Wantage (Lib Dem), is set to present a petition on Monday, May 18, calling on the government to “restore” the Post Office.

The branch, located about a mile south of Didcot, was thrown into the lurch after a decision to close it was made “without informing” the volunteer-run community shop where it was based.

Residents were made aware in March.

In a situation previously described as “farcical”, by Sally Barksfield, chair of the East Hagbourne Community Shop Committee, the operation of the branch was advertised in the village to be run under a ‘local model’.

MP Olly Glover with post office campaigners (Image: Olly Glover)

Sally said: “This meant we lost the community grant, which supported a dedicated Postmaster.”

It would mean the non-profit community shop would have to take on the management and up to 70 per cent of the staffing costs for the Post Office.

The community shop is the only retailer in the village other than a pub.

The Post Office branch previously ran under a ‘community model’, where about half of the costs were covered by a government grant.

On advertising the ‘local model’, Blair McDougall, minister for small business and economic transformation, said: “I recognise how important a local Post Office can be for a community, especially for elderly and vulnerable customers.

“I am also aware of the strength of feeling locally, not least given the Post Office’s relationship with the community‑run shop and the role both play in village life.”

For Mr Glover, this solution does not resolve the situation.

He stated: “Over the last week, East Hagbourne Community Shop and I have been working hard to collect signatures for my parliamentary petition.

He added: “You can still sign the petition at the community shop this weekend.”

MP Olly Glover in the community shop (Image: Olly Glover)

The MP’s petition has around 70 handwritten signatures, a requirement for parliamentary petitions is for them to have wet signatures or handwritten signatures.

There is also an online petition on the issue being run by the community shop volunteers, which over 1,000 people have signed.

The community shop also shared a message about the parliamentary petition on social media.

It said: “Even if you have already signed the Shop’s own petition, Olly could use every one of our signatures to show our support in front of Parliament!

“Thank you for your support for our fight to restore local access to this critical service!”