Former Wigan Warriors shop to house stop-gap post office

Two days after the sad closure of WHSmith on Standishgate, where the service was previously based, the stop-gap outlet launched a short distance away one of the vacant units in the Grand Arcade.

Post Office Ltd is still in the process of assessing several alternative sites for a permanent new home and says that a decision will be made next year.

In the meantime the company wanted to maintain continuity and so has opened two counters in the unit from which the rugby club sold merchandise until it closed before lockdown.

The opening hours remain as they were at Smiths: Monday to Friday: 9am to 5.30pm; Saturday: 9am to 2pm.

Sarah Cottrell, Post Office network provision manager, said: “We know how important a post office is to a community and we are pleased to have opened a temporary post office.

"We pulled out the stops to get this branch open in time for the busy Christmas period.”

The company said that temporary service will be provided by an experienced postmaster and his team and that this postmaster has also successfully applied to be the permanent postmaster when the permanent outlet opens in 2022.

Customers are advised that some services are not available at the temporary location, for instance the AEI machine for driving licence renewal, passport check and send and foreign currency.

All of these services are available at the post office within Asda at Newtown.

WHSmith announced it was closing its Standishgate store earlier this year, citing that it was not viable to continue trading from there. It joins a lengthening list of retailers which have turned their back on Wigan town centre.

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