{"id":496,"date":"2021-11-05T14:08:18","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T14:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/?p=496"},"modified":"2021-11-05T14:08:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T14:08:18","slug":"everything-must-go-as-gillingham-post-office-set-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/2021\/11\/05\/everything-must-go-as-gillingham-post-office-set-to-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything must go as Gillingham Post office set to close"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Local Gillingham Post Office is unfortunately set to close in January 2022.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another large retail giant has confirmed it will be closing one of its high street stores.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WHSmith&nbsp;have confirmed that their Gillingham High Street location will close early next year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This store contains Gillingham\u2019s largest post&nbsp;office,&nbsp;is set to shut&nbsp;on the 8<sup>th of<\/sup>&nbsp;January 2022 as&nbsp;WHSmith&nbsp;have stated business was no longer viable on the high&nbsp;street. They&nbsp;are due to close the store after the forthcoming lease expires.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WHSmith is a massive part of the high&nbsp;street,&nbsp;and the post office provides customers with the opportunity to send&nbsp;parcels,&nbsp;receive&nbsp;parcels,&nbsp;purchasing stamps as well as paying bills and money transfer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Local residents are very upset&nbsp;and disappointed&nbsp;with this decision as this store closure&nbsp;is a big inconvenience for the community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_4185.mov\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reiss Blake who has lived in Gillingham for 10 years wishes to start a petition and save a massive part of his local high street. He strongly believes that \u201cClosures that affect the community should be carefully thought through\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two nearest&nbsp;alternative&nbsp;post offices are located in Sturdee&nbsp;Avenue, Chatham&nbsp;and another in&nbsp;Hempstead Valley.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The store has launched a closing down on books and stationery as \u201ceverything must go\u201d and there are signs displayed in the store front windows.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stephanie Bempong<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Local Gillingham Post Office is unfortunately set to close in January 2022.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another large retail giant has confirmed it will be closing one of its high street stores.&nbsp; WHSmith&nbsp;have confirmed that their Gillingham High Street location will close early next year.&nbsp; This store contains Gillingham\u2019s largest post&nbsp;office,&nbsp;is set to shut&nbsp;on the 8th of&nbsp;January 2022 as&nbsp;WHSmith&nbsp;have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-stories-around-the-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}