BADSEY villagers are being urged to come up with ideas for a new home for their post office which is being closed by Post Office Network following investigations into "irregularities".

The village post office was moved from its own premises to the specially extended Spar shop in the High Street earlier this year.

However, as from January 2 it will no longer be there after the Post Office withdrew its contract with the business following an investigation into how the business was running.

This has prompted fears from villagers that they are going to lose the valuable service, making life more difficult for pensioners and people without transport, particularly as Badsey's only bank closed less than two years ago.

In a letter to the Journal, resident Derek Coupland said: "We are told there is one in Evesham.

"It is absolutely disgraceful the way that the people of this village have been treated, particularly the elderly who have somehow to get to Evesham for their pensions," he added.

But Pam Johns, of the Post Office Network communications department, said the company did not want Badsey to lose its post office and appealed to local people for help.

She said: "The post office was closed while we carried out procedural checks and we did find some irregularities which were fully investigated.

"As is our practice, the postmaster was suspended while this was going on and he has since had his contract terminated. Now we are looking for someone to run the post office and we are also looking for premises. We would be delighted to hear from anyone who can help us keep it going."

She said the irregularities were of a financial nature and added: "The vast majority of postmasters and mistresses are beyond reproach, but if we have any concerns about how the business is being run, we have to go through certain procedures.

"Our ethos is that we are dealing with public money and we have to be beyond reproach. Following investigations, in this case we felt that we no longer had the confidence in this person's ability to continue.

"We fight very hard to keep our rural network of post offices open and would like someone to come forward. We can be quite innovative on where we can put post offices. We have had them in pubs and in village halls, so we will certainly look at any suggestions."

No one at the Spar in Badsey wanted to comment and suggested inquiries about the future of the post office should be directed to parish council chairman Kelvin Hughes.

Mr Hughes said it was a private business and not a parish council concern but added: "We would actively encourage anyone to come forward to run the post office and enable it to be kept open in Badsey for the benefit of the parishioners."

People wanting to make any suggestions can contact Post Office Counters on 0845 722 3344.