Public Grant Helped Bring Post Office Back to Motherwell After Three-Year Gap

The new branch opened on Brandon Parade East in March, creating four jobs and restoring postal, parcel and cash services to the town centre. The amount of public funding awarded has not been disclosed.

A Post Office has returned to Motherwell town centre almost three years after the previous branch closed, with public funding helping two business owners convert a vacant retail unit on Brandon Parade East.

Hithendra Cheetirala and Venkata Sudheer Chatrathi opened the new branch at 64 Brandon Parade East on 6 March 2026. North Lanarkshire Council disclosed the financial support behind the project in July, saying its business grants allowed the owners to complete the fit-out earlier than expected.

The branch provides personal and business cash deposits and withdrawals, cheque deposits, vehicle-tax services, foreign currency, bill payments and parcel services. It also handles Royal Mail, Parcelforce and DPD business, alongside document certification and in-branch identity checks. Current opening hours are 9am to 5.30pm from Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on Saturday.

Its opening restores a central service that had been absent since the Muir Street Post Office closed in 2023. Local reporting also recorded the withdrawal of Post Office services from Airbles Street in February 2024, leaving residents and businesses with fewer nearby options while attempts to secure a replacement town-centre location continued. A proposed earlier site did not proceed after agreement could not be reached on its lease.

The Post Office confirmed in November 2025 that the replacement branch would operate from Parade Gifts & Stationary, formerly Bella Mani. Its consultation described two screened service positions and a third lower, open-plan counter intended to improve accessibility.

North Lanarkshire Council says the new business has created four jobs, although it has not stated whether the positions are full-time or part-time.

Public support paid for part of the fit-out

The owners received support through the council’s Town Centre Retail Business Fund. The grant contributed towards a new ceiling, LED lighting, wall displays, Post Office and retail counters, disability access, printers and photocopying equipment. They also secured assistance from the council’s Business Start Up Fund.

The exact value of either award has not been published.

The retail fund provides up to £20,000 for each eligible property but covers no more than half of net project costs. The landlord and tenant must therefore provide at least the remaining 50 per cent, together with VAT and delivery costs. Payments are made retrospectively, requiring successful applicants to fund the work before reclaiming the approved grant.

That distinction is relevant to the description of the branch as a publicly supported project. The council grant helped accelerate the conversion, but it did not necessarily meet most of the cost, and the available information does not show the total investment made by the owners.

The separate Business Start Up Fund offers awards of up to £1,000 or £3,000. It may cover equipment, stock, digital investment and improvements to commercial premises, but cannot be used for wages, rent, utilities or other ordinary running costs. It is also paid retrospectively.

Both programmes are open to applications until 18 December 2026.

Bringing a vacant unit back into use

The Town Centre Retail Business Fund is a pilot scheme intended to reduce the number of empty ground-floor units across Airdrie, Bellshill, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld, Kilsyth, Motherwell, Shotts and Wishaw.

Properties must ordinarily have been empty for at least three months, and applicants must hold or agree a lease lasting at least 12 months. Businesses and landlords are required to work with a Business Gateway Lanarkshire adviser before submitting a joint application.

The fund is intended to bring vacant premises back into use while increasing footfall and supporting new businesses. In Motherwell, the Post Office has the potential to meet both aims: it occupies a formerly empty unit and provides services that require people and businesses to visit the town centre.

North Lanarkshire Council’s existing Motherwell Town Action Plan recognises that town centres need to move towards a broader mix of services as traditional retail patterns change. It also proposes retaining a concentrated retail core and using grants to help businesses relocate from less sustainable locations.

A Post Office fits that mixed-use approach. Its role now extends beyond letters and stamps. The branch provides counter banking for customers of participating banks and building societies, as well as cash-handling services for local businesses.

Post Office research says more than half of UK consumers still use cash at least weekly, while 89 per cent believe continued access to cash is important. Those figures were commissioned by the Post Office and should be treated as industry research, but they reflect the continuing practical value of a counter service in a town centre that has experienced bank and retail closures.

Funding figure covers several separate programmes

UK Government Scotland Office Minister Kirsty McNeill said North Lanarkshire was receiving up to £41.5 million through the wider Pride in Place programme.

That figure is considerably larger than the pot supporting the retail grant.

North Lanarkshire’s allocation from the short-term Pride in Place Impact Fund is £1.5 million over two years. The money can be used for community buildings, public spaces and high-street revitalisation, including adapting vacant premises for new use.

The larger figure cited by the minister combines that allocation with separate long-term Pride in Place commitments for Coatbridge and parts of Motherwell. Coatbridge has been allocated £19.5 million over ten years, while Forgewood, North Motherwell and Motherwell town centre have been offered up to £19.6 million, with delivery expected to begin in April 2027.

Those wider sums should not be read as the amount invested in the Post Office or even as funding already available to the new branch. The Post Office fit-out was supported through the much smaller Impact Fund-backed retail scheme.

Motherwell’s longer-term programme is still being developed. The council is consulting residents on priorities for a ten-year plan covering Forgewood, North Motherwell and the town centre.

A welcome return with commercial risks remaining

North Lanarkshire Provost Kenneth Duffy said the branch had restored a service used regularly by residents while creating employment.

“It is great to see services and facilities that people regularly use and depend on, like the Post Office, being brought back to our town centres,” he said.

The opening is a practical improvement after a lengthy gap, but its long-term future will depend on whether the combined Post Office and retail business attracts sufficient use.

Most of the Post Office network is operated by independent postmasters and retail partners rather than directly by Post Office Limited. At the end of March 2025, 11,572 of the network’s 11,683 branches were operated by independent businesses.

Public grants can reduce the cost of opening a branch. They cannot guarantee that it will remain commercially viable once the fit-out is complete.

The Motherwell branch now has the advantage of a central location, six-day opening and a wide range of postal, parcel and banking services. The next test is whether residents and businesses use it often enough to prevent the town from facing another prolonged loss of service.