ALMOST three months after their central post office was destroyed by fire, frustrated Wimborne residents have discovered a replacement could still be weeks away.

Campaigners raised more than 2,600 signatures on a petition calling for a temporary service after the post office in Martin’s newsagents was destroyed by a massive fire which swept through buildings in the town centre in early July.

But they are still waiting.

Wimborne county councillor Robin Cook, who has been pursuing the Post Office for action, said: “We’ve had apologies but that’s all we’ve had, and now we’re still six weeks away from getting a temporary unit.

“We are getting what I would consider very, very poor service as consumers.

“If it were any other private business we would vote with our feet.”

He said the issue was still the hot topic in the town. “People want to know when are we going to get our post office, what’s happening. Whilst I understand the difficulties and that they can’t put something up overnight we feel this is an unacceptable delay,” he added.

The temporary facility is also supported by East Dorset District Council, where planning chiefs confirmed they would accept a retrospective planning application to ensure there was no delay in getting the post office back into the town.

A spokesman for Post Office Ltd said they had been “working hard to restore services in Wimborne as quickly as possible”.

He added: “We now have a temporary solution planned to be opened later next month. Unfortunately even a temp Post Office takes time to organise due to logistical difficulties including provision of IT infrastructure, security features etc.

“We would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused by the temporary closure.”

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