RESIDENTS in Heighington hope to have a new post office in the new year, following talks with the Post Office.

A representative from the Post Office met Coun Gerald Lee at Heighington last Friday to discuss his proposal to open a post office in the village hall.

Locals have been without a post office for more than three months, since the former postmaster, Bob Wilson, closed the village branch when electronic pensions payments made his business no longer viable.

Since the closure, Coun Lee has been working to secure an alternative venue for a post office and now hopes to house it in the village hall.

He said that the meeting with the Post Office representative and a visit to the proposed location went well, and in principle there were no objections to installing a post office in the hall.

Coun Lee said: "The closure of the post office has caused some real problems for people who live in the village and I think everyone would like to see a new service up and running as soon as possible.

"The next step is to check with the village hall association about the practical and commercial aspects of setting up a post office, but I'm feeling quite optimistic about the idea."

The new post office would initially open for 20 hours a week, which would serve the needs of the 2,000 village residents, and a woman willing to run the office had come forward. Coun Lee said that setting up a new post office usually took eight to 12 weeks.

He hopes that in the meantime, a new post box can be installed near the centre of the village to replace the one removed from West Green two weeks ago.

A spokesman for the Post Office said that the box had to be removed at some point after the post office closed because it was on private property belonging to the former post master, but alternative locations were being considered.

Coun Lee said: "Since the post office closed, it's been bad enough that people have had to travel to the next nearest post offices in Darlington or Newton Aycliffe.

"But now the removal of the post box has proved extremely problematic, especially for the elderly residents.

"The only post box left is on the west side of the village, which is a mile away from some residents' houses."

He had been working with Post Office officials, and hoped to have another box installed within two weeks.