The petition of residents of the United Kingdom,
Declares that an alternative operator for the Hundredstone Post Office site in the Morrisons Daily on Glenthorne Avenue in Yeovil must be provided before the store’s closure 29 July 2026; and further declares that the current model for local services, whereby bank services often operate in post offices and post offices often operate in shops, means that local people lose almost all of their in-person services when shops, as is often the case in the current business and regulatory environment, don’t survive.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to put pressure on the Post Office to ensure a replacement operator for the post office in the area is in place before the current site is closed; and to consider how to provide communities with more resilient in-person services.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Adam Dance, Official Report, 8 July 2026; Vol. 789, c. 424.]
[P003221]
Observations from the Minister for the Future of Work (Kate Dearden):
I thank the petitioners for raising concerns regarding the future of Hundredstone post office, as set out in petition P003221, presented on 8 July 2026.
The Government recognise the important role that post office branches play in supporting local communities, and fully appreciate the impact that the loss of a branch can have on residents and local businesses.
While Post Office Ltd is publicly owned, it operates at arm’s length from Government and has the commercial freedom to manage the network within parameters set by the Government. Decisions regarding individual branches, including closures and formats, are therefore operational matters for the company. As such, it would not be appropriate for the Government to intervene directly in these decisions; however, we have raised the concerns of the Yeovil community with the Post Office.
The Government protect the post office network by setting minimum access criteria, which, for example, require 99% of the UK population to live within 3 miles of a post office outlet.
Post Office Ltd has been working to secure a replacement branch for Hundredstone post office and maintain access to post office services in the area. In the meantime, customers can continue to access post office services at nearby branches. These include Westfield post office, which is approximately 1 mile from the former Hundredstone branch, and Orchard Street post office, which is approximately 1.3 miles away.
The Government expect Post Office Ltd to continue to engage with the local community and stakeholders as it explores options for maintaining services in the area.