FIVE local Post Offices face the axe under a shake-up of the company and postmasters warn customers are the ones who will suffer.

As reported in Tuesday's Whitby Gazette, Whitby's Skinner Street and Helredale Post Offices, along with Sandsend, Ruswarp and Fylingthorpe, are on the list earmarked for closure.

A six week public consultation process has now begun.

Tony Ryan, who has run the Skinner Street Post Office for the past 11 years, said he has been told he has a "1% cent chance of staying open".

"We are by far the busiest post office in Whitby and it really will be the customers who will lose out because of this," he added.

Deborah Goodall, who along with her partner Martin runs the Ruswarp branch said she was "gutted" by the news.

"The post office accounts for 60% of our business," she said.

"Without it I don't know if we'll survive and it will be the customers who will lose out."

Whitby MP  Robert Goodwill  will be visiting Fylingthorpe today to throw his support behind the threatened businesses.

He said: "We hear that everyone will have a post office within at least three miles of their house but there are three in the Palace of Westminster alone.

"So an elderly person is expected to be able to travel three miles to their nearest post office but an MP in London can't even walk 150 feet? It's not right."

He said he would be doing all he could to help those affected.

Across the country 2,500 Post Office's will be closed to streamline the service and save money.

But it may be a little confusing to try and find the branch in the Parade in Whitby as the map put up by Post Office Ltd is actually one for the centre of Scarborough.

Help the Aged has urged people to protest the proposed closures which it feels will hit the elderly worst of all and the Countryside Alliance have also urged residents to "fight for your local branch."

North Yorkshire County Council will today hold a meeting of a strategy group at County Hall to examine the closures in detail.

"We shall be looking very closely at these proposals," said Coun Shelagh Marshall, the council's older people's champion.

"Rural Post Offices are often the only way to access cash for older people, the disabled and those without transport."

Customers can find out further information on Post Office Ltd's proposals at www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange , by emailing consultation@postoffice.co.uk or telephoning 08457 22 33 44.

The consultation closes on 17 January.

Whitby Gazette

30 November 2007