Reaction to post office closure plans

10:42pm Monday 21st January 2008

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POLITICIANS and postmasters have slammed the proposals to axe 23 post offices in East Lancashire.

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "It is not restructuring, but the wholesale butchery of the Post Office network. It is a very, very sorry day.

"This is tearing the guts out of the rural community. It's absolute treachery and should not be allowed to happen.

"How can they say they are saving the Post Office when they are ripping so many limbs off it?

"Our ageing population are reliant on post offices more so than ever."

Burnley MP Kitty Ussher said she was looking at how best to represent her worried constituents.

She said: "I am very worried about the situation.

"I am particularly concerned about Hapton Village Post Office because to close that seems absolutely insane.

"The next post office is a 30-minute journey away on public transport, which means that it could take an hour-and-a-half for someone to get their pension."

Darwen and Rossendale MP Janet Anderson said she was "astonished" that Sunnyhurst Post Office was on the list for closure.

However she said: "I think it's inevitable that some post offices will have to close because people are not using them as much.

"Instead they are doing things like taxing their car online at times that suit them."

Speaking about the closure of Huncoat Post Office, Coun Dave Parkins said: "It's going to devastate the community.

"All the time we're getting more development in Huncoat but they're taking away our amenities.

"It's wrong they're taking away the choice for my constituents."

Belthorn Post Office in Hyndburn is also marked to close.

Coun Marlene Haworth who represents the St Oswald's ward that Belthorn comes under, said that any campaign against the shutting of the post office would have her "110 per cent backing".

She said: "It's scandalous.

"There are a lot of elderly people in Belthorn and how are they going to get to the nearest post offices in Oswaldtwistle and Blackburn?"

Peter Harrison from the East Lancashire branch of the National Federation of Sub Postmasters agreed with bosses that the current model for the network was "not sustainable".

He said: "It's regrettable, but unfortunately it's part of how things have gone.

"People just aren't using post offices."

Sunnyhurst Post Office, Hindle Street, Darwen, is on the list for closure - only six months after opening.

Postmaster Tariq Hasan said he was "very disappointed" by the proposals and would be launching a petition against the recommendation.

He said: "We are a busy post office and people appreciate how local we are to them.

"A closure will have a big impact on the local community."

The Post Office said it was not willing to provide a full statement on the closures until 10am tomorrow.