Former Wing Commander opens Cranwell Village Post Office

Cranwell Village Post Office is now inside the Premier store at 125 College Road, Cranwell Village, NG34 8DN, which organised a community celebration with free refreshments.

This convenience store was taken over by a new family a year ago, who refurbished the premises including a new front door, lighting and freezers.

They then successfully applied for Cranwell Village Post Office when they heard that the previous postmaster at Willow Lane had resigned.

The new postmaster is Mr Dilaxshan Vijayakumaran, who is running the business with his brother, Dhaxshan, and his cousin, Francis.

Trevor Bush served with the RAF, including at the RAF College Cranwell and his family settled in Cranwell. He was also church warden for more than 20 years and many villagers had suggested that he should be the special guest at the opening ceremony.

The former Wing Commander, who has been a regular customer at Cranwell Village Post Office, said: “I am delighted to have been asked to perform the official opening at Cranwell Village Post Office as I have a long association with the postal service. As a student in the 1950s I had Christmas jobs sorting mail. Then, 28 years later I was Managing Director of Loganair which was responsible for delivering mail by aircraft to and from Scotland and Belfast to the facilities in Luton.

“Post Offices still provide vital services to a local community, especially to a rural village like Cranwell. We greatly appreciate that Dilaxshan Vijayakumaran has taken on Cranwell Village Post Office.”

There is now a Post Office counter along the retail counter of the convenience store. This provides opening hours of Monday to Saturday: 8am - 8pm.

This offers 72 hours of Post Office service a week. This is an extra 27 hours than previously provided for the convenience of customers including earlier opening and later closing.

Postmaster, Dilaxshan Vijayakumaran, said: “This is a lovely village and people have made us very welcome since we took on the Premier store a year ago. We want to thank Wing Commander Trevor Bush, who lives in the village, for performing the honours today and for the community helping us to mark this special occasion.

“As soon as we heard that the Post Office was to close at the other location we decided to apply. So many banks have closed in the area that we knew that people needed somewhere to do their personal and business banking on behalf of the major high street banks. A Post Office offers so many different services that the community is very pleased that there is a Post Office in Cranwell again and with longer hours than before.”

Tajinder Khehra, Post Office Network Provision Lead, said: “We are delighted to have restored a Post Office to this area as we know how important a Post Office is to a community. The branch’s opening hours make it convenient for customers to visit.”