BURLEY Gate residents can have their say on whether or not the village post office should be relocated to a portacabin in the New Year.

A public consultation period on the proposal will end by early November.

The present subpostmaster will retire in October, and this will lead to the closure of the shop that houses the current post office.

But the newly formed community group, Burley Gate Community Shop group revealed this week that they plan to continue all  services at the existing shop from October 11, until the relocation happens.

A Post Office spokesman said: "We are proposing to relocate Burley Gate Post Office to a portable building in the Village Hall car park, where it will open as a community run venture with the parish council chair, Mr Martin Hoskins as the new postmaster.

"The Post Office is now inviting customers and interested parties to give their comments on the move in a six-week public consultation."

Under the proposals, the new community-run venture will be run at first from the existing post office building.

But the spokesman said the plan was to transfer the service to a portable building "sometime in the New Year".

Should the move go ahead, the branch would open from 9am to 5.30pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 9am to 1pm on Wednesday and from 9am to 12.30pm on Saturday.

Last week, the Post Office said the new post office would be staffed "entirely by volunteers", but the Burley Gate Community Shop Group said this week: "We are employing a new Shop Manager – Sue Carss - and she will have a team of volunteers to assist her."

Neil Jenkins Post Office Field Change Advisor said: “We understand how important having a Post Office is to residents in Burley Gate and we are confident that this new community run Post Office service will meet the needs of the local community and secure services for the future."

The consultation will close on November 3.

Until then, comments can be made during the consultation by Freepost YOUR COMMENTS to Post Office Ltd, via email to comments@postoffice.co.uk, via the Customer Helpline on 03457 22 33 44 or Textphone 03457 22 33 55.

Burley Gate is located around 12 miles to the north of Ledbury, just northeast of the junction between the A465 road and the A417 road.