It’s a common trend to move away from busy urban life to the quiet surroundings of rural villages.

People looking to escape from the hustle and bustle of city life turn to a more community-driven feel a more remote area can give you.

But with this decision may come fewer amenities than those in towns and cities.

The case was no different in Grafty Green near Maidstone, with many of those in the village happily living there for years knowing there was limited access to some services.

However, since the easing of social restrictions after Covid, the village has had nothing but issues with budget cuts and other decisions leaving people feeling more cut off than ever before.

The village lost its post office in December 2021 after the previous postmaster retired, and since then has been reliant on a pop-up service in the village hall.

It is a weekly service every Tuesday between 12.15pm and 2.30pm.

But recently, the post office has, on occasion, not shown up and any warnings have been last-minute.

Jon Thompson is the leader of the village hall committee where the Post Office sets up its satellite desk and is the direct contact between both parties.

The 64-year-old said: “I think it’s really important not just for its services but because it is a focus for people to meet each other and gossip and share news, so from a mental health perspective it is a good community event.

“Sometimes people here may go without interaction but they come here, they meet with friends and neighbours and have a good chat and it is good for people’s wellbeing.

“They cancel at short notice very often, which can inconvenience people generally. For me personally, it's not being able to take cash out or send parcels.

“I’m fortunate in that I can drive and can get to Headcorn if I need to, but for others it isn’t possible.”

One missed session was on Tuesday, May 21 when the Post Office was meant to come but did not show up. Jon received a text an hour after it was due saying the employee had car troubles.

It was also meant to have shown on May 7 but due to staffing issues at Tenterden Post Office, the service was cancelled again.

Jon contacted KentOnline in frustration, as the service was being cancelled at least once a month.

May was the first month it had been cancelled twice.

Grafty Green’s Post Office was also part of the village’s only convenience store, so when the post office shut, the shop did too.

It means residents now have to go to Headcorn or Lenham to buy anything, no matter how small.

Retired child counsellor Jackie Hughes said: “It impacted the village quite a lot. If you need money you have to travel, parking is a nightmare so if it was here [a post office] I reckon it’d get used quite a lot.

“It also had a village shop that was used quite a lot and the loss of that means you have to think ahead and plan what you’re cooking with and you have to travel. If you didn’t have a car, you’d be stuck.

“It’s 10 minutes to Headcorn or Lenham and it’s not just that but its parking as well and for pensioners it becomes added money.”

Jon and the rest of the village hall committee organise a coffee morning before every Post Office session to bring the village together. More than 20 people turned up at the most recent gathering.

Jan Carter relies on the pop-up service to run her etsy shop selling dyed yarn.

She said: “With the loss of the post office here I can’t send parcels out so whatever I sell, I have to go to Headcorn or Lenham to post them all out. That means I’ve had to put my prices up, which obviously affects my customers as well.

“Very often I will have stuff that I have kept over waiting for the post office and they don’t arrive, so that makes everything late as well.

“It’s really frustrating when they cancel. You save things up when you were thinking ‘oh, I could go to Lenham or Headcorn that day’, but you hang on and then they don’t turn up so you instantly have to dash off into town.”

John Collins is another who visits the post office when it comes. He has lived in the village his whole life.

The 79-year-old said: “The main thing is banking. I am treasurer of two or three organisations and I often have money with me that I need to bank and it means I have to go to Maidstone, which is the nearest bank 12-13 miles away, or I have to go to Lenham or Headcorn.”

John feels villages are being forgotten about, what with the loss of the post office and the cuts to the bus service which in 2023 was reduced from a daily to a weekly service on Wednesdays after Kent County Council cut funding.

He said: “It’s in all rural communities like this unfortunately because there is no growth. It’s all in the town centres which means we’re slowly losing amenities.

“I’m very disappointed. The community here is good but losing the amenities is very frustrating and most of us say ‘what can we do’ but we’re not appearing to be helped.

“The bus service really annoys me because I think it was inflicted by KCC themselves, and we told them it would happen.

“They decided they were going to run a pilot scheme for a feeder service where people had to change buses at the Morrison’s in Sutton Road.

“It was a nightmare because if a bus hadn’t turned up or there was a delay and they missed their connection it was an hour wait.

“We told KCC it wouldn’t work. It didn’t work and, of course, by then it was subsidised by them and we suffered from the bus cuts.”

John continued: “I am still driving, thankfully, but there may come a time I can’t and unfortunately there is no other way of travelling. We have a few older people in the village as well but it makes it feel like the village is dying.

“We have a good community but people can’t get around so I get the feeling the smaller rural communities are being forgotten.”

Another regular at the coffee mornings is John Cheney who believes the Post Office is making a rod for its own back with its unreliability.

The 69-year-old said: “It is amazing how one man’s decision has changed the whole dynamic of a village permanently.

“The post office is very important. It helps bring people into this coffee morning and is good for the local community for people who wouldn’t meet up otherwise.

“They continue to give us a poor service with people needing to go elsewhere, and that would then inevitably put less trade through the counter and that will cause it to cease. It’s creating its own demise.

"We’re limited because the bus service that was only goes to Maidstone.

"The nearest main shops are Maidstone or Ashford and that’s a 23-mile round trip so with the price of fuel and time you can’t just do a small job, that is pretty much half a day.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We know how important a post office is to a community.

“This outreach post office has been operated at the village hall by a local postmaster due to the retirement of the previous postmaster for Grafty Green in 2021.

“We understand that on occasion the outreach service provided by a local postmaster has been unable to operate due to staffing shortage or a telecommunications issue.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused when the service was unavailable as villagers, especially those without their own transport, need a reliable service.”