BUILTH Wells Post Office opened today (Friday) after almost a year since the former branch closed.

High Street homeware store Nightshades is the new home of the branch following months of hard work and planning to bring the vital service back to the town by shop manager Tracy Houghton.

The first postal customer was Vicky Stokes of Castle Street who was presented with a gift voucher by new postmistress Tracy after sending the first parcel. 

The former branch closed in December 2018 however a weekly mobile post office has been based at The White Horse pub car park in Builth Wells.

Tracy told the County Times that the town has been “suffering” without a permanent post office.

“I have a lot of little old ladies coming in here and some of them haven’t got anybody to get their pension for them or they’re not physically able to go and get them themselves. It’s really sad.”

She hopes the return of regular post office services will bring “some positivity back in the town”.

“Morale has been really low and obviously a couple of shops have had to close but now they’re reopening.

“I’ve lost so many customers to Llandrindod because they have to go to the Post Office. They have to spend hours up there so they do their shopping. Which is great for Llandrindod, and I know that they need it as much as Builth does but you try and look after your own town.”

She added: “I just hope everything will go smoothly and it has brought positivity back.”

Post Office external relations manager Stuart Taylor said: “We do understand that local residents and traders have missed not having a permanent Post Office in the town and we would like to apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

“We are very grateful to the core postmaster who has provided the weekly mobile Post Office visits to the town which has helped the most vulnerable customers to be able to access a service at least each week without having to travel outside of Builth.

“My colleagues in our local field team have worked very hard, often behind the scenes, to support the new Post Office operator in submitting their successful application and in designing and building the new branch.”

The Post Office is open on Mondays to Fridays from 8.30am to 5.30pm, and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays.