FRUSTRATED villagers are demanding action after enduring nine months without a post office service.Wangford's outreach service was closed in June and since then the 500 residents of the village, many of them elderly, have been forced to travel more than three miles to Southwold to post parcels and make or claim payments.

FRUSTRATED villagers are demanding action after enduring nine months without a post office service.

Wangford's outreach service was closed in June and since then the 500 residents of the village, many of them elderly, have been forced to travel more than three miles to Southwold to post parcels and make or claim payments.

Last Tuesday, Wangford with Henham Parish Council discussed how the Post Office had been unable to set up another outreach service since the sub-postmaster resigned.

The closure happened more than a year after the service had replaced the village's permanent post office which was shut as part of the nationwide cull of 2,500 branches in early 2008.

The council meeting heard that parish councillors had been continually trying to get the Post Office to keep them fully in the loop in its on-going search for someone to run an outreach centre.

In December it was reported that frustrations were growing in Wangford at the failure by post office managers to re-launch the outreach service.

Parish councillor Pamela Blades said: 'We've had the item on the agenda for sometime. The main problem is that the Post Office has not come back on the subject, other than that they are looking for someone.'

Ms Blades also said that she has spoken to Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer and Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Therese Coffey on the matter.

A Post Office spokesman said: 'We have still not been able to find a replacement for the provision of outreach postal services in Wangford and continue to try to do so.

'We are determined to maintain postal services in the area and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience they have been caused.'