Village post office faces uncertain future

The future of Alderley Edge Post Office looks under threat as The Bubble Room have submitted a planning application to change the use of 45 London Road, currently occupied by the Post Office, to a restaurant and bar.

The Bubble Room are hoping to expand in to the neighbouring property, which like their current premises is owned by Bluemantle. They have also applied to extend the frontage of The Bubble Room across 45 London Road with folding sliding doors and an additional decking area.

This proposal obviously raises the important question of what will happen to the Alderley Edge Post Office so I caught up with Jane Mason from The Bubble Room yesterday to learn more about their plans.

Jane explained "We were approached by our landlord a few months ago who informed us that the current tenant of the Post Office and shop unit would be vacating in the very near future and asked if we would be interested in taking the unit to extend The Bubble Room. On the understanding that this unit would only be available to us if the Post Office relocated, we obviously expressed our interest, and made the planning application for change of use.

"The additional space would give us a better opportunity of operating as per our Bramhall unit, which has a higher number of covers for dining. We have always been at a disadvantage with our present set up having our main dining area in a separate room to the rear of the premises, unlike all the other operators in the village where diners sit within the main areas. Our plan is to extend the kitchen into the current rear dining room.

"We appreciate there may be some concerns as to the loss of retail to another licensed consent, however, if our application is successful the increase to A3 use is still within the permitted percentage of A3 to A1 retail within the centre as a whole under current guidelines of the local plan policy.

"We also fully understand that the village may think we are pushing out the Post Office. We are informed that the current tenant has had his business for sale for over twelve months with no interest. We also understand that there have been at least two separate applications to relocate the Post Office within the village, which are currently being processed. We can only re-iterate we are only interested in this unit if the Post Office relocates within the village."

Jane added "As one of the few independent local family owned bar and restaurant operations in the village, we are investing once again into the community and the new plans would create more jobs and opportunities for local employment."

There have been rumours in the village for some time that Tesco Express would be taking on the post office services but at the time of writing I am awaiting a response from Tesco as to whether they have put in an application to run the village post office.

Parish Councillor Mary Maczkowiak said "At the moment the Post Office looks like it's going. I have been told that Tesco have no intention of taking this on and there are no objections in with the planning department and no consideration is being given to the Post Office.

"I have lived in Alderley Edge for 53 years and as a resident I don't want to see the Post Office go. This is still a village and we have to fight for village status. The landlords are dictating what we have in the village.

"I am trying to get people motivated. As a community if we want to keep the Post Office we have to do something about it. From the amount of phone calls I am getting there is a lot of concern. I am telling people they need to object to the planning application as the deadline for objections is September 1st."

I contacted Post Office Limited today to ask them about the future of our Post Office and whether it will be relocated, or whether the village faces losing an important local service.

Nick Turner, from the Royal Mail Press Office said "I have no information to tell you. It's business as usual as far as we're concerned. The sub postmaster works on a franchise basis, as an agent on behalf of Post Office Ltd, and at the moment we're not expecting any change to the service we provide at all."

"It is the postmaster's own business so as far as we are concerned it's business as usual until he informs us otherwise. From experience we are not usually informed until they have a firm offer on the table and at that point we gear up to find alternative arrangements to ensure that the service is maintained for the community. They do of course need to provide us with enough time to look for alternative premises."

Meridian Business Sales are advertising the leasehold of Alderley Edge Post Office for £145,000 and explained that any buyer would also need to continue to pay rent to the landlord if they wished to stay at the premises.

The turnover of Alderley Edge Post Office is reported to be £80,000 with a salary of £57,118, which could be supplemented by profits from other sales, such as cards and gifts.

However when I asked her to check whether the leasehold for Alderley Edge Post Office was still available she came back to me and said the vendor had recently decided not to sell. Apparently the vendor has given Medium Business Sales notice to remove the business from sale but it takes a bit of time to go through the process which is why it is still being advertised on their website.

Commenting on The Bubble Room's planning application, Councillor Frank Keegan said "This application will be fiercely contested by Alderley Edge Parish Council, on the grounds that it is a major retail site within the village and should not be changed from A1 to A3.

I am comfortable that the application will be resisted by the authority but in anticipation of the wrong decision I propose to talk to Mike (Williamson, Chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council) and get ready to Judicially Review any decision to approve."

Councillor Keegan added "We have sympathy for businesses which fall on hard times but that is no reason to throw out the planning guidelines of the local authority."

We will continue to investigate the situation and keep you abreast of any developments. If anyone has any thoughts on the situation, or information to add, please do so via the comments section below.

The Bubble Room planning application can be viewed online at the planning portal. The reference number is 10/2417M and the deadline for submitting comments and objections is September 1st 2010.

Tags:

Planning Applications, Post Office, The Bubble Room