HOPES are high Haslemere’s Lion Green Post Office will reopen at the Haslewey Community Centre in January.

Thanks to a generous response to an appeal for £15,000 to pay for the necessary building works, the money has now been raised and it’s all systems go subject to planning approval.

Wey Hill lost its Lion Green post office branch, which was based in the former Co-Op, in March 2016, when Marks and Spencer took over the site.

A petition to keep a post office on site gathered more than 4,000 signatures. But the attempt to persuade M&S to host the service in its new store did not succeed.

Angered by the closure, more than 3,000 residents signed Haslewey’s successful petition to the Post Office to re-open the vital facility in the community centre instead in August last year.

The Post Office will pay for two counters and a safe. But Haslewey must pay the cost of converting and securing a redundant space in its foyer, and also the wages of the new postmaster and assistant.

Racing to reach the £15,000 appeal target – literally – the centre’s deputy chairman Ken Griffiths and treasurer Simon Bowyer raised £2,000 when they successfully completed the Great South Run earlier this month.

Other fundraising activities included a special concert by The Waverley Ensemble, blue disc donations from Haslemere Tesco and a ‘Donate and Eat Cake’ stall at the town food festival.

The appeal even inspired its own fundraising ice cream, ‘Royal Raspberry’, created by Ben Govier of near neighbour Dylan’s Ice-cream.

Announcing the appeal target had been reached (see Letters Page), Mr Griffiths said: “On behalf of all the trustees, staff and volunteers at Haslewey, I would like to thank all those people who so generously contributed, their time effort and money to the appeal.

“We had children donating their pocket money, adults going to cash machines and drawing out money to put into our collecting tins, money raised from coffee mornings, contributions from local organisations and businesses, tickets sold at musical evenings where all artists performed free of charge, cakes baked and then sold at the Haslemere Food Festival, even a couple of trustees running in the Great South Run.

“In fact, no stone was left unturned in raising the money.

“As a result of all your donations, we now expect the Community Post Office, ‘Your’ post office to open in January next year. At the same time we want to continue to support the post office in West Street, believing a continued presence close to the High Street is essential for Haslemere.”

“The good people of Haslemere and the surrounding district, can feel rightly proud of themselves in reversing the trend of post office closures.”