HOPE has been given to residents angry at the loss of a village post office.

Heighington Parish Council has agreed to hold talks with Post Offices Ltd in a bid to provide a post office in the village hall.

Councillor Gerald Lee explained that the parish council would be meeting representatives of Post Offices Ltd to look into the viability of providing a service in a room at the village hall.

"We have to look at the implications, the viability of doing it," he said.

"We need to see that the village hall association is happy about it, see what, if any, modifications are needed in the room, with regards security, how we will staff it, and so on, but the lady at the post office seems quite positive about it."

Former postmaster Bob Wilson closed the Heighington branch in July after electronic pensions payments made his business unviable.

Peter Gosnay, owner of the Spar shop in the village, considered taking over the post office business, but decided against it for commercial reasons.

A spokesman for Post Offices Ltd said: "We are currently exploring options to get a post office branch reopened in the village with the parish council, and we will be meeting with them very soon to discuss this."

Meanwhile, a pensioner in the village has expressed his anger at the loss of a post box at the former post office.

Robert Kelso, 77, was incensed to find the post box on West Green had been removed on Friday and no replacement had been provided.

That means he and his disabled wife, Joan, 69, have to walk a mile to a small post box on a new estate at the other end of the village.

"First they close the post office, and how a village with 2,000 residents is supposed to cope without a post office, I don't know. But then, to add insult to injury, they remove the post box and don't replace it," he said.

A spokesman for Post Offices Ltd said the box had to be removed because it was on private property belonging to the former postmaster, but the company was looking for an alternative site, and apologised for the inconvenience.