KIDWELLY: Send in a mobile post office, MP tells bosses, as the town’s five-month wait goes on

Kidwelly has been without a post office for nearly five months, and the town’s MP has now called for a mobile van to fill the gap until counter services return.

Dame Nia Griffith, Labour MP for Llanelli, has written to the Post Office asking it to lay on a mobile service at least twice a week, after what she called “concerns raised by residents in Kidwelly regarding the continued absence of Post Office services in the area”.

The Station Road branch closed on 23 March, and the MP said the town had been left with nothing in its place. “Nearly five months on, Kidwelly remains without any operational Post Office service, not even any form of mobile provision, whereas mobile provision is available in other communities,” she wrote.

She said thousands of residents had been left without local provision, with the closure “having a significant impact, particularly on older residents, those without access to private transport, and others who rely on local Post Office services to carry out everyday transactions”.

She asked the company to “arrange for Kidwelly to have a reliable mobile service at least twice a week until a more permanent replacement service is arranged”.

Pressing for speed, she added: “I would be grateful if this could be done as soon as possible, as the post office has been closed for over four months now.”

The call has been backed within the town. Independent Kidwelly town councillor and former mayor Carl Peters-Bond said the closure “has left a huge gap in provision for residents and businesses”.

“There are no nearby banking facilities and the delay in reopening the Station Road premises is having an impact on the most vulnerable in our community who rely on face-to-face contact with Post Office staff,” he said.

He urged both sides of the reopening effort to move: “I’m calling for CETMA and the Post Office to do all they can to ensure a swift reinstatement of services, and I’m fully behind the stop-gap mobile post office suggestion in the meantime.”

Behind the calls sits a reopening effort whose timetable rests with a Llanelli-based social enterprise, and with the Post Office’s own vetting process.

The post office buildings were bought earlier this year by CETMA, whose activities range from the PBP Foodbank and Kidwelly Community Fridge to employment support, digital training and community events.

Companies House records list CETMA as the controlling member of Red Brand Media, the social enterprise behind local titles including the Llanelli Standard.

The purchase was backed by a £250,000 Welsh Government grant towards buying the shop, post office and living accommodation, with further support from the Moondance Foundation and the WCVA, and a community crowdfunder that hit its £2,000 target in June.

The purchase also answers a question hanging over the group’s own home. Its Kidwelly projects run from the town’s former police station at Banc Pendre, which Dyfed-Powys Police put up for sale in 2023.

CETMA said in March 2025 that its landlords had extended its lease there until that August, thanking hundreds of people who it said had worried that relocation would mean Kidwelly losing its services. It has described the post office site as a permanent base, after it could not find anywhere else suitable in the town.

The group says its plans for the site include a shop, the foodbank and community fridge in the old sorting office, and community support services.

Kidwelly Town Council welcomed the takeover in April, while noting its understanding that reopening was “subject to CETMA receiving additional funds by donation”.

Builders moved in at the start of May, fireproofing the shop area and partitioning the old sorting office.

In its latest update, the group said it hoped the shop would be ready to open in August, but that the counter itself must wait on the Post Office’s own checks.

“In regards to the post office, we are still currently undergoing their very extensive evaluation process,” it said. “We have absolutely no control over this and we don’t know how long it will take.”

The Post Office runs that vetting before anyone can become a postmaster, and the group said it was answering the company’s queries as quickly as possible.

The team also moved to quash rumours circulating on local Facebook groups, saying it wanted to be open with residents “because we know this service is so important to so many people”.

The group says it aims to extend the counter’s hours, including bringing back Saturday opening, with new staff to be recruited and trained and CVs invited to info@kidwellypostoffice.co.uk.

For now the town remains without a counter of any kind: the gap the MP wants a twice-weekly van to plug until the Station Road doors open again.