New Romney Post Office could move to new premises and be open seven days a week.
It would have more than double the current trading hours.

The public are now being consulted about the plans, which have the agreement of the current subpostmaster.

The plan is to move the business from its existing premises in St Lawrence Court in the High Street 136 metres up the road to the Spar store, which has late night hours.

The foodstore site would provide open plan premises and the service would be open Monday to Sunday from 6.30pm to 10.30pm, a total of 112 hours.

The current times are 8.30am to 5.30pm Mondays to Fridays and 8.30am to 4pm Saturdays.

Post Office Ltd says this is part of its plans to modernise the network and extend service hours for customers. The new branch would have different styles of counters.

Two would be open plan, one would be a modern screened position and another would be an open-plan serving point at the retail counter.

Will Russell, Post Office regional network manager, said: “This modernisation is part of a major investment programme, the largest in the history of the Post Office and marks a commitment to no more branch closure programmes.”

A decade ago Post Office Ltd had a nationwide cull of branches, saying there were too many chasing too few customers.

In 2003 there was a programme to close five branches in Folkestone alone.

Today the government has committed £1.34bn to make sure there are no closures and to update branches.

Last November the government announced a further £640 million investment in the Post Office network, from 2015 to 2018.

Nationwide the programme will see up to 8,000 branches modernised with additional investment in more than 3,000 branches.

The six-week public consultation closes on July 22.

Submissions can be made during the consultation by Freepost YOUR COMMENTS to Post Office Ltd, via email to comments@postoffice.co.uk, via the customer Helpline on 08457 223344 or Textphone 08457 223355.