Mobile van to bring postal services to Cocking after Post Office closes

The specially designed van will visit the village every Monday from 11am to 12.30pm and will be situated in the car park of the Blue Bell, which has recently reopened as a community hub.

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It comes after Cocking Post Office at Mill Lane, Cocking, shut its doors on December 28 due to the ill health of the postmaster, who was described by resident Frances Russell as ‘a real stalwart’ of the community.

She said residents were ‘incredibly sad’ at the news.

Going forward, she said of the Post Office: “What we need to do as a community is to decide how we deal with the loss of that service and think about the impact on the village.”

She said it was a ‘well loved resource’ whose absence was a real loss for the community, especially considering the loss of ‘so many banking services in Midhurst’.

“It will be a real problem for us so we are working with the post office and with our own community to see what our options are,” she said.

“We need to make sure we get it right, for the good of the village, and not make a quick reactive decision that is wrong.”

A community meeting has been called for 6.30pm on January 31 at the village hall to discuss the issue.

In the meantime, the travelling Post Office, which is operated by the postmaster for Grayshott, who already provides service to several rural communities, will be open to residents from this Monday, offering a range of services including cash and pension withdrawals, home shopping returns and international letters.

Andy Healey, Area Network Change Manager, said the Post Office was ‘pleased to have quickly restored Post Office service to Cocking’.

He confirmed it was ‘a temporary solution’ while the Post Office continues to look for a permanent solution.

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