80 Post Office branches in region axed
Sep 2 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal
EIGHTY North East post offices are to close despite campaigns and public outcry during a period of consultation, The Journal has learned.
A six-week consultation, by Post Office Limited on the future of 81 offices in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham finished in July.
An official announcement from Post Office Ltd is expected at 10am this morning but a source has told The Journal that just one office, in Blaydon, has been saved by the process.
Twenty-four rural branches in Northumberland and Durham are being replaced by a mobile van, while a further 56 in urban areas are to close.
It is unknown what the exact timetable for the closures will be, but it is thought some could close by October.
Reacting to the news last night, Berwick MP Alan Beith said: “This whole consultation was a complete sham from the start. They are closing very busy post offices to create more business for these new mobile offices.
“The consultation has been carried out in a very arrogant way. They have gone through all the consultation process but the plans don’t seem to have changed at all. There is no more process for us to get involved with. It is very bad news for the region.”
The news will come as a bitter blow to hundreds of people who have fought hard to save their local office.
Dick Moules, parish councillor for Humshaugh, Northumberland, campaigned to save the village’s post office. He said last night that the future of the village could be threatened by the loss of the facility.
Mr Moules said: “This could put the village shop at risk as no one will have a reason to come to the village.
“We have been earmarked as a sustainable village and if the shop goes, the sustainable housing we need will go, families will not be able to move here and the school will close. The whole village could become a commuter sink hole.”
Fiona Beare, who campaigned to save Garden Village Post Office in Gosforth, said: “I am extremely disappointed and immensely saddened that despite all of our best efforts, Post Office Ltd have completely failed to listen, understand and appreciate exactly what the loss of this post office will have on this area.
“It is clear this so-called six-week public consultation period has been a total sham on the part of Post Office Ltd and by their actions, at the stroke of a pen, they have completely ripped out the heart of this community.”
Jeff Reid leader of Northumberland County Council said: “If this is the case then we are bitterly disappointed.
A spokesman for Post Office Limited declined an opportunity to comment.
