The last post
10:17am Wednesday 14th May 2008
AFTER three months of "consultation", 2,500 protest letters, 22 "stakeholder meetings", thousands signing petitions (the Post Office hasn't counted the exact number), and only one of our Labour MPs brave enough to vote against the closures, not one of the 37 threatened branches in our region survived the cull yesterday.
PUBLIC consultation over post office closures in the region was branded a sham last night after campaigners failed to save a single branch.
All 37 branches on the hitlist in Cleveland, south Durham and North Yorkshire are to close, Post Office bosses confirmed.
A further two branches will be replaced with outreach services.
News of the closures, which will start next month, came despite protests and community campaigns to save many of them.
During a six-week public consultation period, which ended on March 26, Post Office Limited received about 2,590 responses and attended 22 meetings with customers and their representatives.
Officials also received several petitions, but confessed they did not know how many people had signed because they did not count them.
After hearing that not one branch had been removed from the closure list, campaigners said they felt ignored.
James Wharton, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Stockton South, said: "Thousands of local residents spoke out against the closure of Oxbridge Lane Post Office and they have been ignored."
One postmistress, who did not want to be named, said: "We desperately wanted to survive, but the post office along the road, where the postmaster wants to retire, is staying open.
"Local people know best what their communities need, but someone sitting at a desk miles away is making the decisions that affect our lives."
Cheryl Clark, sub-postmistress at Simpasture, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, said: "It's been a complete and utter sham, I think the consultation was a waste of time."
Sheila Mulgrew, sub-postmistress at Toft Hill, near Bishop Auckland, added: "I'd like to think they listened, but don't think they wanted to be proved wrong."
Post Office Limited insists closures are necessary to save the remaining network and stem losses of £4m a week.
The Government has ordered it to shed 2,500 branches by the end of the year.
There was anger during the consultation period when Labour MPs who had pledged to save local branches voted against a Tory Commons motion that would have suspended the closure programme.
Vera Baird (Redcar), Hugh Bayley (City of York), Ashok Kumar (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland), and Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) campaigned against axing post offices in their constituencies.
But when it came to the crunch, they voted to allow the closures to go ahead.
Easington MP John Cummings was the only North-East MP to vote for the closures to be suspended.
Dari Taylor, the MP for Stockton South, who abstained during the vote, said she was "furious and seething" at the decision to shut the Oxbridge Lane and Long Newton branches.
She said: "I asked if there was an appeals process against this decision and the answer no'.
"I asked if these post offices could be given a period of time to prove they can be profitable, the answer was again, no."
Darlington MP, Alan Milburn, said: "Post Office Limited's decision to go ahead with the three closures in Darlington is not only disappointing, it rides roughshod over the views of residents and the arguments I and others made for a rethink."
John Williams, leader of Darlington Borough Council, said: "I am bitterly disappointed that the consultation, and the weight of evidence presented by us, seems to have had no impact on Royal Mail's decision to close post offices in Darlington."
Bosses at Post Office Limited insist they considered all feedback from the public consultation exercise.
"We spend a lot of time planning before closures are proposed and do fully consider feedback before finalising the plans,"
said spokesman Graham Moore.
Mike Jones, regional manager for the independent postal services watchdog Post Watch, agreed the company had been fair when finalising its decisions.
He said: "We've been involved in the consultation and know Post Office Limited considered feedback alongside the minimum access criteria set by the Government and adhered to that.
"It is never a happy day when a post office closes, but we hope what we end up with is a sustainable network that people support so no more closures are required."
STAMPED OUT
Clifton Avenue & Cowpen Lane, in Billingham; Bolam; Boldron; Brompton; Plumor Road, Catterick Garrison; Charltons; Croft; Brinkburn Road, Cleveland Terrace & Pierremont Crescent, in Darlington; Hart; Chatham Road & Elwick Road, in Hartlepool; Heighington; Hutton Henry; Hutton Magna; Kirk Merrington; Lazenby; Leeholme; Long Newton; Roman Road, Middlesbrough; Moorsholm; Simpasture Gate, Newton Aycliffe; High Street, Northallerton; Page Bank; Park Avenue, Redcar; Reeth Road, Richmond; Romaldkirk; Seamer; Coronation Avenue, Shildon; South Church; Oxbridge Lane, Stockton; Thorpe Thewles; Toft Hill; Tudhoe Colliery; Winston