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The leader of Wiltshire County Council has branded the decision to close 19 Post Offices as bad for local people, bad for local communities and bad for Wiltshire.

Jane Scott, the leader of the county council, says the move means nearly one in ten people in the county will lose their local Post Office.

The county council is opposed to the reduction in the number of Post Offices as it believes it will hit the most vulnerable and most isolated people most.

At the end of last year the Post Office announced that in Wiltshire 19 post offices might close with a further 11 branches replaced by outreach services. This followed an earlier announcement that across the country 2,500 branches might have to close.

Following a sixth-week consultation by the Post Office on these detailed proposals it has announced the 19 branches it had identified for closure would be closing.

But of the branches identified for outreach services four (Avebury, Lacock, The Obelisk and Yatton Keynell) are subject to a further review following concerns raised during the consultation. The consultation period for a further two (Broad Chalke and Longbridge Deverill) has been extended by six weeks.

As part of the consultation process the county council wrote to the Post Office outlining its strong objections to the proposals. The county council's response was one of 4,000 pieces of correspondence from Wiltshire and West Berkshire raising concerns about the proposals.

Mrs Scott said: "This is a bad decision for Wiltshire and flies in the face of what local people want. These cuts will have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable and isolated people in the county.

"We have strongly campaigned for the Post Office to look again at its proposals and we are deeply disappointed they have chosen to ignore the wishes of people in Wiltshire."

8:17am Tuesday 26th February 2008

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