A VILLAGE post office remains closed almost one month after armed robbers stormed the building and threatened staff with crowbars.

Following the traumatic incident, the sub-postmaster of Eckington Post Office, Rob Hickie, stepped down and the Post Office Ltd is now desperately seeking a new sub-postmaster and premises to operate the service.

The robbery took place on Tuesday, January 18, when two men wearing balaclavas stole a substantial amount of money.

The post office has been closed ever since and villagers have had to travel to Pershore and Bredon for services.

"We are quite lucky that we are situated on a good bus route into Pershore," said Diana Ball, clerk of Eckington Parish Council.

"But we do need to get this service up and running again soon as there are a lot of people in the village who rely upon it."

The MP for West Worcestershire, Sir Michael Spicer, has written to the chairman of the Royal Mail Group, Allan Leighton, urging him to speed up the reopening of the post office.

"I am very keen to ensure that Eckington continues to be served by some form of local post office," he said.

"I know that there are various ideas and proposals being considered.

"I am very keen that a decision should be taken about one of these in the very near future."

Royal Mail said they too were very keen to get services back up and running in the village, but needed someone to come forward.

"We are working to restore normal service," said spokesman Dan Panes. "We have no plans at all to close this service down and we have told the MP this.

"We need to encourage anyone who may be interested in running a service in the area to contact us as soon as possible."

Post offices are run on a franchise basis and anyone interested would need access to suitable premises.

Anyone interested should contact the Post Office Ltd on 08456 016260.

A man was arrested at an address in The Glade, Malvern, on Friday, February 4 in connection with the armed robbery.

He has been bailed to Worcester Police Station while enquiries continue.