News

Shepway Council has fired a broadside against plans to close local post offices throughout the district.

The consultation period on the proposed closures opened on Tuesday 2 October and will run for six weeks, but council Leader, Robert Bliss, said he was so appalled by the plans he responded straight away.

"The Post Office proposes closing five post offices across Shepway. We will obviously be gathering evidence for a more informed response but I was so angered by the proposals I wanted to let the government and the Post Office know exactly what this council thought.

"Post offices can be the lifeblood of smaller communities and to close them can be devastating for local people - especially those who are elderly or do not have cars."

The government has called for an 18 per cent reduction of post offices throughout the UK and in Shepway five post office branches, Littlestone, Seabrook, Shorncliffe, Enbrook Valley are under threat - the fifth, Saltwood, is already closed. Closures will be determined on how many customers use them, their size, proximity to other post offices and their profitability.

The council will be working with Kent County Council, parish councils, local residents groups and other organisations to gather evidence about the importance of the threatened post offices.

"If we want to persuade the government to change its mind, we must have evidence to support our case," said Cllr Bliss. "We need to look at what impact closures will have on low-income groups, pensioners and those without private transport. We need to work with our local communities and find out how many people use their local post office, the economic make-up of the local area, the age of the local population and things like car ownership and how well areas are served by public transport. If we need to, we will use the Freedom of Information Act to get the information we want from the Post Office.

"All this will take time and is not something the council can do on its own. But it is essential to gather this sort of information and use it to present the strongest possible case if we want to be taken seriously."