Post officecampaignbacked byleading MP

Paul Jeeves

ONE of the region’s leading MPs is backing a campaign to reinstate post offices across some of Yorkshire’s remotest communities.

Richmond MP William Hague has written to Post Office Ltd calling for services to be re-introduced after a wave of closures in parts of Richmondshire.

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Many post offices have been forced to shut in the Upper Dales area after sub-postmasters or mistresses who have either retired or sold up have not been replaced.

Coun John Blackie, who represents the Upper Dales division on North Yorkshire County Council, organised a meeting with Post Office officials after he expressed grave concerns that a policy of “closure by stealth” was being adopted.

He said: “William Hague has written to Post Office Ltd, and he was assured that there is a determination to bring services back to the Upper Dales. He is very concerned, as we all are, about the lack of provision.

“However, the services we have had in the past are a thing of the past. We do not anticipate getting anything like the level of service we had before, but we are aiming to at least get some post offices back up and operating.”

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The campaign has had a significant success as a post office is due to be re-introduced in Askrigg on a 12-month pilot from the end of this year.

However, Coun Blackie said nine post offices had closed in Wensleydale and Swaledale since he was elected to North Yorkshire County Council in 1997. Residents living in the Upper Dales’ most isolated villages, such as Keld in Swaledale, face a 24-mile round trip to branches in either Hawes or Reeth.

A spokesman for Post Office Ltd maintained efforts were continuing to meet the Government’s minimum access criteria, which includes ensuring that 95 per cent of the UK’s rural population is within three miles of a post office branch.