The Post Office has revealed the proposed new location of Melksham’s Crown office will be within a card shop on Bank Street, 250 metres from its current location.

Plans were announced back in March to relocate the town’s central office into a local shop as part of a major nationwide restructuring of the Post Office network.

If approved, the office will move from it’s current Church Street home to 6-8 Bank Street, which is currently a greetings card and stationery shop operated by Crabb and Andrews Retail Ltd.

The new office would be completely renovated, with automatic doors and four serving counters. It will be open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, an extra 14 hours a week.

There will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the proposed move, with all current staff having the right to transfer to the new operator.

Roger Gale, Crown Network General Manager, said: “We are committed to keeping a Post Office branch in Melksham and to maintaining the same levels of service for our customers.

“We believe the best way for us to do this is to change the way we operate it, so if the move goes ahead it will be run by Crab & Andrews Retail Ltd rather than by us directly.”

Crabb and Andrews currently operate two Post Office branches from within their stores in Bristol.

A public consultation on the plans will open tomorrow (November 27), where the public are invited to air their views on the move before a final decision is made.

The consultation, which would usually run for six weeks, has been extended by 10 calendar days to account for the Christmas and New Year period, and will close on January 20 2014. The proposed month of move is March 2014.

Submissions can be made during the consultation through an online questionnaire at www.postofficeviews.co.uk, by FREEPOST Your Comments to Post Office Ltd, via email to comments@postoffice.co.uk, or the Customer Helpline on 08457 22 33 44.

Customers are asked to quote branch code 010548 in all communication.