PLANS have been revealed to move the Dinas Powys Post Office further along Station Road into the Village Stores newsagents,

The Post Office says that the move further along the road will "create a modern open-plan local style branch with significantly extended opening hours for customers".

The Post Office is inviting customers and interested parties to give their comments on the move in a six week public consultation. The new service is proposed to open in April 2015, subject to a successful consultation.

The move will see opening hours increase by 33 hours a week, with Post Office product and services available for 79 hours a week.

The move will see longer weekday, all day Saturday and new Sunday opening times.

Local residents have opposed the proposed move on the Dinas Powys Pictures Facebook page, with Simon Redclift saying: "Shocking example of how privatisation leads to cost saving measures to increase profits at the public's expense."

Post Office Regional Network Manager for Wales, Adrian Wales, said: “We understand how important having a Post Office is to local residents in Dinas Powys and we are confident that this new modern branch will make it easier for our customers to do business with us and also secure services for the future”.

He added: “This change is part of a major programme of modernisation and investment taking place across the Post Office network, the largest in the history of the Post Office, which will see up to 8,000 branches modernised and additional investment in over 3,000 community and outreach branches. This investment makes a commitment to no more branch closure programmes.”

Post Office local is a new way of delivering Post Office services from an open plan counter with Post Office products and services available alongside retail transactions during shop opening hours, allowing Post Office services to be available for longer offering greater convenience to customers.

Opening hours at the proposed new location will be 6am until 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and 6am until1pm on Sunday, offering customers an extra 33 hours a week to access Post Office products and services.

Customers will be able to carry out a wide range of Post Office services including cash withdrawal services from partner banks and Post Office card account, access to Post Office Financial and Travel services as well as mail services.

The Post Office, now independent of Royal Mail, is the largest retail network in the UK, with over 11,500 branches. It is also one of the fastest growing financial services companies and is developing its online and telephony services.

During the public consultation Post Office Ltd welcomes feedback on any issues customers would like considered before a final decision is taken on this proposal. The consultation will close on February 19.

Submissions can be made on the proposed move through our easy and convenient new online questionnaire at postofficeviews.co.uk, by entering the code for this branch: 18461199.

Alternatively, submissions can be made during the consultation by post at Freepost Your Comments to Post Office Ltd, National Consultation Team, Wealdstone Post Office, 1st Floor, Admin, 4-12 Headstone Drive, Harrow, HA3 5QL, via email to comments@postoffice.co.uk, via the Customer Helpline: 08457 22 33 44 or Textphone 08457 22 33 55.