Post Offices face closure
SEVENTEEN sub-post offices in West Norfolk face the axe, the Lynn News reveals today.
A reliable source has told us Lynn will be losing the North End post office in Loke Road; Downham is particularly hard hit, with both the Lynn Road and Railway Road branches to be axed; Swaffham will lose its London Street post office and Fakenham its Wells Road branch
Other post offices vanishing, among a total of 61 throughout Norfolk, are Castle Rising, East Walton, West Walton, Holkham, Ringstead and Tittleshall.
Six further villages – Beacham-well, Nordelph, Southery, Welney, Wereham and Wimbotsham – will lose their branches but have them replaced with a travelling outreach service for a number of hours a week.
Post Office Ltd is due to officially produce the Norfolk closures list tomorrow, as part of a six-week consultation period.
The current national review intends reducing the total number of post offices by 2,500.
When contacted by the Lynn News yesterday, North West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham described the latest closures as a "body blow" to the communities involved, as post offices were a vital part of the local economy and often the social centre of villages.
'Post office hasn't listened'
He said: "I am absolutely appalled that a number of post offices in the area are going to be closed. I think that the Post Office has not listened to what the public is saying.
"Post offices are the hub of any community – they help keep villages alive – and certainly provide a vital service to communities.
"In the past, people went there to get their pension, their TV licence or whatever, and meet friends and socialise.
"But the Government has systematically removed services from the Post Office and now people are forced to have their pension paid into their bank account.
"The BBC has withdrawn the TV licence fee from post offices and it is also much more difficult to get your vehicle excise licence from the Post Office – now we are encouraged to do that by post or online.
"It all shows that the Government is not backing the network and the Post Office is losing more money than would otherwise be the case. If we put these services through the Post Office again it could be made viable."
Mr Bellingham said there had been a "drip, drip, drip" of post office closures in his constituency over the past ten years, including two in Gaywood, one in North Wootton and the "body blow" of losing the Crown Post Office in Lynn town centre last year.
The main post office in Lynn's Baxters Plain, has now been replaced by an in-store branch at W.H. Smith's in Norfolk Street.
Mr Bellingham said the southern part of the borough would be particularly hard hit by the two closures in Downham, and the northern part by the axing of Castle Rising and Ringstead.
"I'm also very surprised that the post office in a big village like West Walton is going to close," he said.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Thursday 09 February 2012
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