More than 70 residents attended a rally to save Shoreham’s Brunswick Road Crown Post Office on Saturday.
The Post Office announced it was seeking retail partners for the branch, which could see it move from its current location, earlier this year.
Catherine Arnold, a member of Adur labour party who organised the rally, said: “It was a really good turnout, there was a real mix of ages there.
“People want to keep the Post Office in the current building. For the elderly, its very easy to get to, people in wheelchairs can get in easily.” She has also set up an online petition to save the post office, which has gained more than 1,500 signatures.
Steve Gilbert, the Labour candidate for Shoreham South in the forthcoming county council elections, also attended the rally. He said: “We think its really important that we have a good range of quality services for our community.
“The Post Office is central to that, it has been for all the time I’ve lived here in Shoreham, which is well over 20 years, and I think its closure and removal to a different location would be an absolute disaster for our community, so we want to keep it here.” Members of the community have banded together and applied for the Brunswick Road building to be made an asset of community value.
This would allow the community to bid on the building, were it to come up for sale. Adur District Council are expected to give their decision on the application soon. A meeting was held between Post Office representatives, Tim Loughton MP and councillors on February, 23, to discuss the franchising process for the Post Office’s in Shoreham and Lancing.
Mr Loughton said: “The main update was that the month long advert for franchisee interest has closed and there have been expressions of interest on both branches.
“They are now going through assessing whether they are suitable or not. “When they have a preferred partner they will then go out to public consultation and if things go smoothly the move will probably happen early in 2018.”