News that Teignmouth’s main post office will remain open as a franchise operation has provoked mixed reactions among local residents.

Last week, the Post Office announced plans for its Den Road branch to be operated by independent franchise partner South Coast Management Ltd from September.

Thenew franchise holder, which already operates a retail chain of card shops and post offices in Dorset, will offer the same services as the current post office and will open half an hour earlier on Tuesdays.

From September, the main Teignmouth post office opening hours are envisaged to be 9am-5:30pm Monday to Friday and 9am-12:30pm on Saturdays.

The future of the crown Post Office had been hanging in the balance since November 2024 when the Post Office confirmed plans to offload its 115 directly managed branches as it sought to reduce costs.

While thankful that the town centre will retain a post office, many residents remain concerned about the long-term future of the facility.

‘Just look what happened in Dawlish,’ said Devon County and Teignmouth Town councillor David Cox who campaigned to save Teignmouth Post Office. ‘Dawlish was one of the first post offices to be franchised. It started at the same post office site and then moved into a shop.’

The Post Office has not ruled out a change in location and said ‘we will continue to work with our retail franchise partner to review if the current branch or a new nearby location is the right long-term branch premises. Any proposed move to a new location is unlikely to be before spring 2026 and would be subject to a public consultation’.

The Post Office in Dawlish is now part of the One Stop in The Strand. However, the main post office counter in the shop closed last summer with post office operations moving to the main tills. The branch has been the subject of numerous complaints relating to inconsistent opening hours, lack of staff knowledge and issues with parcels being accepted. Last year the post office counter was closed for more than a week due to staff recruitment issues.

Newton Abbot’s main post office in Market Walk closed in 2007 and moved to a counter in CostCutter on Queen Street. However, customers complaints about and reduced opening hours resulted in MP Martin Wrigley stepping in to try and tackle the issues. Last August, the Queen Street branch was forced to close for several days after staff were reported to have resigned en masse.

However, the Post Office said any independent franchise retail partners, including South Coast Retail, must have a clear track record of successfully running Post Office services or similar customer-orientated retail operations.

‘South Coast Management Ltd operates successful branches in Swanage, Dorchester, Sherborne and Weymouth, plus three outreach services for the three communities in the Swanage area,’ the Post Office pointed out in a statement.

Teignmouth is also served by a post office at Ashleigh Way Stores.