THE FATE of closure-threatened post offices will be announced next week.
Postmasters and postmistresses at seven Chester district post offices and 23 in rural Cheshire will find out if their branches are among those facing the axe on Tuesday.
Richard Probert, postmaster at Watergate Street post office in Chester city centre, declared the fight to save his branch over when the consultation period ended last month.
“We had been doing a letter campaign asking customers to write to us. We received 200 and a significant number have been sent directly to Post Office Ltd,” said Mr Probert.
“They’ve just looked at the map and decided there are too many post offices too close together. It’s nothing to do with the business or how busy we are.”
Gill Worrall, sub-postmistress at Overton post office, Hillside Road, Frodsham, said rural areas could be hit hardest.
She said: “Customers are still asking: ‘Have you heard any news yet?’
“If we close, the nearest post offices are St Hilda’s Drive or Frodsham Main Street. That’s a two mile round trip.”
Eddisbury MP Stephen O’Brien delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street signed by thousands of local customers desperate to save their post offices.
He said: “The consultation process, I argue, is a sham. They’ve given no indication that they’re going to change their mind.
“Within a town it’s easy to say people have something in another direction available to them.
“But with limited bus services and no train service, people in rural areas will be dependent on a car.”
The Post Office has cited the availability of benefit payments and other services online as a reason for the closures but Mr O’Brien says that will be of no help to some.
He added: “Even with the web it isn’t that easy for a lot of them, particularly the elderly, but that’s something the Post Office just does not want to accept.
“Even if this goes ahead, the opposition this time might make the Post Office think again before it starts chipping away at more.”
