Post office to close

10:07am Friday 4th April 2008

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Barnoldswick will be left with just one post office after it was announced this week that the axe would fall on the Gisburn Road branch.

Following a six-week public consultation, Post Office Ltd announced that the branch would close as part of a scheme to modernise and reshape the post office network.

�At the end of the day that post office is a lifesaver. There are a lot of elderly residents living around Gisburn Road who use the shops there instead of going into town."

Coun Jenny Purcell

Councillors, MPs and residents have reacted angrily to the decision.

Town councillor and Gisburn Road resident Jenny Purcell said: "At the end of the day that post office is a lifesaver. There are a lot of elderly residents living around Gisburn Road who use the shops there instead of going into town. They might have free bus passes, but that doesn't mean they can all just jump on a bus to get to the post office in town."

Coun Purcell said the Gisburn Road post office was like a community centre, where people were treated as more than just a number.

"One post office to serve more that 14,000 people is not good enough," she said. "The Government says we are moving forward for the better, but I think we had better services in the 1950s."

The town's remaining post office, on Frank Street, has doubled-up as an Indian restaurant and take-away to ensure its viability.

Town councillor Marjorie Adams said the consultation on the closure had been a "sham".

"It's obvious by the way they have confirmed all of the closures in Pendle that they have not made any serious effort to look at the circumstances of each one," she said. This is a blow to local services and a blow to our community."

Pendle's Labour MP Gordon Prentice said he had been disappointed by the news. Two weeks ago he voted with the Conservatives to suspend the closure programme in a last ditch attempt to force a rethink.

Mr Prentice said: "I wanted to see a continuing subsidy for our post office branches, with the amount being publicised locally so people would feel an obligation to use their local branch."

However, Mr Prentice said the brutal truth was that fewer people were using post offices and neither the Government nor any other party would be prepared to underwrite the network's losses into the future.

Doreen Pollitt, deputy leader of Lancashire County Council, said: "Post offices are an important part of our local community and we are, therefore, very disappointed that the decision has been taken to go ahead with these closures."

The county council has begun looking at alternatives to the services provided by the Post Office. These include providing certain post office services alongside existing council services, providing public transport to nearby post offices and involving the private sector.

The sub-postmaster of the Gisburn Road post office was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.