A former Post Office once supported by comedian Vic Reeves is to be converted into a family home after plans were approved.
Applicant Jonathan Brenton submitted plans in March to overhaul the Grade II-listed former Charing high street branch into part of the adjoining house.
Mr Brenton took on the Post Office in 2011, but handed the reins to former parish councillor Sarah Crawley in 2017, who then shut the site in December 2022.
Now Ashford Borough Council (ABC) has approved plans to convert the property, which is currently split into residential and commercial, into a new family home.
The conversion will provide an extra reception room for the current dwelling.
The appearance, shopfront, doorways, and internal layout will remain as they are currently.
The building forms part of the Charing Conservation Area, designed to help protect the village’s rural character.
The original structure – which houses the retail space and most of the upstairs living accommodation – was constructed in the 15th century.
It stood as part of a medieval hall house, then later split into numbers 44-46-48 high street.
To the rear is a two-storey extension, believed to date from the Georgian era.
On the ground floor is the rest of the retail space and on the first floor an additional bedroom.
Meanwhile, a single-storey extension, which houses the ground floor living accommodation comprising the lounge and kitchen, sits behind the original building.
Several updates to the property have also been carried out by Mr Brenton, including a loft conversion in 2012 and the ground floor extension two years later.
Prior to its permanent closure, the branch was temporarily shut in 2016 after a lengthy dispute between Mr Brenton and Post Office officials over contracts, pay and security at the store following an armed robbery four years earlier.
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Protests were held in the village, in which Reeves and his model wife Nancy Sorrell, who live in Charing, were among those waving placards supporting him.
Six years later, Mrs Crawley closed the branch a fortnight before Christmas in 2022 after staff faced an “excessive amount of abusive behaviour”.
She said at the time: “Unfortunately, the last month has seen an excessive amount of abusive behaviour, due to situations out of our control such as the Royal Mail strikes and Post Office Ltd not supporting local branches.”
