The future of Port Erin post office will be on the agenda when village commissioners meet tonight (Tuesday).

Current sub-postmaster Peter Midghall is stepping down after 19 years.

Isle of Man Post Office says it wants to maintain counter and parcel collections services in village – and has launched a tender exercise to find a new supplier.

The new contract will be a fixed period until March 31, 2025, with an option to extend one year.

Recent months have seen a spate of departures of post office operators around the island.

Postal services in both Laxey and Kirk Michael have moved to EVF garages in the villages following the resignation of the postmistresses in both villages.

A search for people to take over sub-post office services in Peel, following the resignation of the sub-postmistress there, had to be extended earlier in the year.

And the current operator of services in Governor’s Hill gave notice to terminate their contract last month.

Anyone interested in taking on the contract in Port Erin has until April 28 to register an interest.

Isle of Man Post Office returned to profit in 2020-21 after posting three years of losses.

It made a profit of £1.53m in 2021-22, slightly down from the £1.61m profit posted the year before.

But the retail network continued to be loss making at a broadly similar level to the previous year.

Transactions at sub-post office counters continued to decline, reporting a fall of 12% over the year.

A Tynwald scrutiny committee in 2020 concluded that the working relationship between the Post Office and sub-postmasters needed to be ‘re-set’.

In evidence given to the committee, sub-postmasters stressed the importance of retaining community services and regaining some of the counter services that have been lost.