THE village post office in Arrochar has had its opening hours cut at short notice.

Arrochar Post Office, which is located inside the Three Villages Cafe in the village, had new operating times displayed on a piece of paper on the front door on January 31.

The notice stated that the cafe would be closed Monday to Friday and open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-4pm, while the post office would be open Tuesday to Friday from 10am-1pm and on Saturday and Sundays from 10am-4pm.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “This post office is vital to Arrochar. Especially for pensioners to collect their pension when they want which they can’t do now because they’ve slashed the opening and closing times without giving any adequate notice to their customers.

“Businesses in the village rely on this service for banking and cash change. It’s a total disgrace.

“There is no way for any locals to lift cash out. Apart from the post office. And now you can’t do that because they’ve decided to close certain days.”

As previously reported in the Advertiser, Arrochar’s post office was moved to Three Villages Cafe from the nearby Braeside Store on November 15, 2016.

At the time it was reported that post office services would be available during the cafe’s regular opening hours, which, at up to 50 hours a week, were longer than those provided at Braeside Store.

At the time of the handover the Post Office’s opening hours were advertised as 10am-4pm Monday, Thursday, 10am-8pm on Friday, and 9am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday during the off-season.

Tom Ireland, chairman of the Three Villages Development Trust, which runs the cafe and post office, announced the changes on a Facebook group for the village the day after the notice was posted on the door – and apologised that the news wasn’t sent out earlier.

The post read: “Due to the economic status of the Pit Stop, at this time it is not financially viable to be open all week.

“We apologise to all if this causes an inconvenience and hope you will understand.

“This is in line with the hours of the Tarbet post office so the service is still available all day in the three villages.

“As of March the Pit Stop and post office will operate at its full time hours.

“We like to officially thank all members of the trust and especially the hall management group for their support.

“We would like to host all of the three villages’ residents at the hall for a discussion forum in the next few weeks, where you’d hope all will participate and have questions and ideas for the future.”

A spokeswoman for the Post Office apologised for any confusion around the opening hours.

She said: “We are aware of the issue and we are liaising with the branch to resolve this as quickly as possible for the community.

“Once again, we’re sorry to our customers, and would like to thank them for their patience while we work to sort out this out.”