Peter WalshFamilies living in a village which has been without a post office for almost six months will not have to wait much longer.Peter Walsh

Families living in a village which has been without a post office for almost six months will not have to wait much longer.

As previously reported Post Office bosses were holding a consultation on proposals to reopen Spixworth Post Office in the village newsagent's just 15 yards away from its former location on Crostwick Lane.

The branch closed last September and since then villagers have campaigned to see it reopen.

Following the post office closure Dan Roper, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Broadland, helped set up a petition which collected 1,100 signatures in just one week.

And now it has been revealed that the new post office will be opening, in the newsagents, on Monday, March 22.

Reverend Andrew Beane, rector of Spixworth, Horsham St Faith, and Crostwick, who called for the return of the village post office and helped set up a campaign on social networking site Facebook, said he was delighted the post office would be reopening.

He said: 'Thank you to Spixworth Newsagents for running the branch and to everyone who supported the campaign to 'bring back our Post Office', especially Roz Rose and the parish council, our county councillor, Keith Simpson, and Dan Roper for his petition; thanks also to the Evening News for the stories and publicity.'

As the Evening News reported previously, the former sub postmistress Tara Murphy, 37, of Crostwick Lane, Spixworth, received an eight month jail sentence, suspended for a year, and was ordered to do 180 hours' unpaid work after being convicted of stealing �11,000 from the branch.