A Suffolk MP has called for more clarity over the future of a ‘vital’ village Post Office in a letter, amid fears of funding and hours cuts.

James Cartlidge, South Suffolk MP, has written an official letter to Nick Read, chief executive of Post Office Ltd, asking for clarity on the future of the branch in Swan Street, Boxford.

In a video uploaded to Mr Cartlidge’s Facebook page last week, subpostmaster Richard Haining revealed the company had told him the office’s exceptional subsidy would be halved in January — meaning a decrease from £2,700 to £1,350 per month.

On top of this, the hours would also be reduced from 50 to 30, which Mr Haining described as ‘not feasible’.

He said: “The village here needs its Post Office, all the local businesses here, all the local customers, all rely on me.

“I love this village, I want to stay here working.”

The announcement followed a Post Office review which concluded the company needed to ‘re-align’ resources and make changes to how the subsidy was allocated.

Currently 130 branches, out of 11,500, receive the payments to support their viability.

Mr Cartlidge pledged to do everything he could to support Mr Haining and Boxford Post Office by writing to the company and the minister.

In his letter addressed to the company’s chief executive yesterday, Mr Cartlidge called for further clarity on how it would protect ‘vital services’ in rural branches.

He said: “Post Office branches provide many essential services to communities — from banking facilities to renewing vehicle tax — which are particularly valuable in rural areas such as South Suffolk where constituents can face challenges accessing bigger towns.

“As such, I should be grateful if you could please clarify the position of the Post Office regarding exceptional payments and, most importantly, outline your contingency plans to mitigate the detrimental impact that the loss of services will have on rural communities in South Suffolk.”

Addressing the letter, a Post Office spokesperson said: “Post Office regularly reviews provision across the network to ensure it is using its limited resources to continue to provide a stable network of Post Offices for communities throughout the UK.

“But we are not planning any changes until a strategic review into Post Office is completed later this autumn.

“We have written to Mr Haining to confirm there will be no changes to their exceptional payments while this strategic review is underway.

“We’re grateful for our postmaster’s dedication to his community and look forward to helping him and the village of Boxford celebrate 250 years of postal services later this month.”