Culcheth Post Office, at 7 Jackson Avenue, is now at risk of closure, according to its manager and owner, Farhan Ugradar, known locally to many as Faz.
Reported by Tom Bedworth, Community Reporter, the news comes with a rather odd note that the piece was part of an exclusive subscriber partnership with sister title USA Today and does not necessarily reflect the view of The Herald. Quite why Culcheth post office needs an American publishing subplot is anyone's guess, but here we are.
Faz has run the village post office for more than a decade, and for plenty of residents he is not just the person behind the counter, he is part of the furniture - in the nicest possible way, not like that one wobbly chair every community hall insists on keeping.
In a social media post, Faz said the business has been struggling for some time and has now become not profitable and unsustainable. His warning was blunt: unless more people use the post office again, there is an increased likelihood that Culcheth could lose its local Post Office for good.
He wrote: The post office is really struggling and has been struggling for a while to the point where it has become not profitable and unsustainable and is at risk of closure.
He added: Unless something changes and more people start using the post office again, there is an increased likelihood that there will be no more post office in Culcheth.
That is not exactly background noise. For a village like Culcheth, losing a post office would be a proper blow, especially for residents who rely on face-to-face services rather than apps, QR codes and whatever fresh digital nonsense requires three passwords, a blood sample and a signal stronger than the one you get near the parish noticeboard.
Faz pointed out that Culcheth Post Office still offers a long list of useful services, including free cash deposits for most major banks, free cheque deposits for most major banks, free cash withdrawals, on-demand travel money for many currencies, plus savings accounts and ISAs.
The positive here is obvious: these are genuinely practical services, particularly at a time when bank branches have been vanishing from high streets faster than decent manners in a supermarket car park. The criticism is just as obvious: essential local services should not be left teetering because the business model no longer works. If the Post Office network wants local branches to survive, warm words and branded posters are not enough.
Faz ended his message by saying: Please help your local post office to stay open and become a sustainable business once more.
Opening hours for Culcheth Post Office can be found online. For now, the message from management is clear and serious: the village may be at risk of losing a long-standing local service, and that would be a miserable bit of news for Culcheth.