Sadness amid joy for pair at saved Post Office

Sep 3 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

A COUPLE who run the only post office in the North East to be saved from threatened closure last night spoke of their delight.

Roland and Brenda Derry feared the worst after being named among the 81 proposed closures on July 1 and had started planning for life after the axing of the branch in Blackhall Mill, near Chopwell on the Gateshead/County Durham border.

Yesterday Mrs Derry said she was numb with excitement and customers had been in tears after learning their rural branch had been reprieved.

Another post office – the branch in the Nisa supermarket in Walker Road, Newcastle – yesterday replaced Blackhall Mill on the list for closure. There will now be a six-week consultation on whether it should close.

The Journal revealed yesterday how Post Office Ltd bosses planned to scrap all but one of the 81 branches earmarked for closure in July.

And yesterday the other 80 sub-postmasters and communities who had fought to save their local post offices continued to question the legitimacy of the six-week consultation period, claiming it was a “done deal” from the outset.

But Mrs Derry, 64, whose husband Roland, 69, has been sub-postmaster for nine years, said their branch had been saved by a campaign which saw nearly all Blackhall Mill’s 800 residents lobby MPs and the Post Office. She said: “We’re absolutely numb with excitement. We’ve had people come in in floods of tears.

“I didn’t think we had a cat in hell’s chance. My husband and I were wondering what we were going to do. But the wonderful people in the village put their case forward and did a great job.”

Mrs Derry said her heart was bleeding for the post offices that were closing.

She added: “The saddest thing about all this is that everything that is British is disappearing.

“We may not make millions but we provide an excellent service you’d never get in a large post office.

“If you have a queue a mile long there’s no way you can help an old lady to key in her pin number or notice one of your customers hasn’t been in for a couple of weeks. That’s what we’re about.

“We’re there to look after the people in our village as well as work for the Post Office and that must mean something.”

Yesterday Malcolm Dance, who has run the Crookhill Terrace post office at nearby Ryton for nearly three years, accused Post Office Ltd of hypocrisy after his branch was confirmed for closure.

He said: “In my eyes the posters we have received this morning have been printed before the consultation period even went ahead.

“They’ve dragged this out for six weeks while people have been trying to keep us open but it was already decided. It seems hypocritical and wasting people’s time.

“They make out they’ve read through all the information people have sent. They haven’t. As far as I’m concerned they have just shredded them all because their decision has been made.”

Page 2: Full list of Post Offices to be closed >>