Axe over town post office (From Mid Devon Star)

Axe over town post office

4:39pm Saturday 24th May 2008 in News By Rebecca Hehir

THE axe could fall on one of Crediton's post offices as part of the Government's re-structuring of post office services across the country.

Royal Mail has released details of 45 post offices earmarked for closure in Devon including the Exeter Road site.

Residents and town leaders have already started their campaigns to fight to keep the post offices open.

Crediton Town Councillor David Nation said: "We are in the process of writing to Royal Mail to make them reconsider this restructuring.

"We have seven post offices affect ed by changes in the Crediton area and we are already concerned about the extra impact this will have on the Market Road post office.

"This is huge deterioration in the service for residents."

Devon County Council's member for communities, Cllr Brian Berman, said: "We will start consulting with parish councils and working individ ually with the postmasters of the ser vices affected before deciding how best to respond to the consultation.

"Naturally we do not want com munities to be adversely affected, especially where post offices are the only shop in those communities."

Crediton resident Bob Edwards said: "I can see why the Exeter Road post office is quite high up on the list as there is an alternative in the town but I would rather see it open.

"There are one or two that need to closed but this amount is ludicrous."

A six-week public consultation period is now underway.

Tim Nickolls, Post Office Ltd's net work development manager for Devon, said: "Taking the decision to close any Post Office branch is always very difficult and we know it will cause concern to many of our customers.

"We want to ensure that everyone who uses post office services is both fully aware of the proposed changes, and able to give views on them."

Consultation closes on June 30.