A desire to keep track of recent proposals to close our post offices in Railway Road and Lynn Road moved town council representation to attend a meeting in Aylsham last week.

One revelation was the way all post office staff, when originally told of the proposals, were sworn to secrecy, thus effectively making a complete mockery of the supposed six weeks time of appeal. Also non-negotiable is the fact that 2,500 POs will be closed so, even if we do manage to keep ours open, a surrounding village area presently a safe one (or even two) may well be stamped out.

The current part of the "consultation" process is to accept a branch is closing and move on to alternatives. Laughingly, these include post office facilities in a shop. Stating the obvious this is what we have already got. It is also, twice over, what we are now in danger of losing.

Another alternative is to start a commuter travel scheme to take the elderly to another post office. Assuming that all the Downham elderly are able to travel by bus at a certain time on a certain day from a certain pick-up point this will certainly work. Never mind that those same people have lives outside such state servitude, doing their utmost to live them more rewardingly, independently.

What of newcomers to Downham? More new building is on the way, our population continues to increase. Has proper consideration been given to the growing size of us?

Our main post office in Wales Court is often queued up outside onto the precinct. Word is this facility may be moving to a smaller site. What then? Stakeouts at sunrise to ensure we get served and home by sundown? One way to beat the queues is to go online – fine for those who have access to a PC, are computer literate and who trust online banking systems – but useless for those who have not, and/or do not.

The good news is that many of you have already signed the local petitions available. The truthful news is petitions are not enough. We need to back up our signatures, defend our POs by delivering a deluge of written, legitimate reasons – demographics, deprivation levels (older residents, those with no computers etc) – to stand any real chance. The National Consultation Team can be contacted at P.O. Ltd, Freepost Consultation Team (no stamp needed), or by email at consultation@ postoffice.co.uk (a free internet service is available at the library).

• There is a public meeting about the P.O. closures on Monday at the town hall, from 8pm. More info on Page 2 today.

• In true civic style, this year's Mayor's At Home event, held last Friday evening at the town hall, brought together a diverse crowd of local people to celebrate the past mayoral year and its achievements. A particular highlight for me was Mayor John Doyle's speech – humorous and entertaining and giving heartfelt, public recognition to the immense support he has received from the community during his term of office.

It is almost a year ago that John spoke of wanting his year to be about "We, the people". To my mind, John's greatest mayoral legacy to us is the outstandingly successful Water Festival – an event that he and his helping team sweated buckets over to organise, stage and supervise, and one that about 4,000 of us, those very same people John pledged that his year was about, revelled in and enjoyed. His will surely be a hard act to follow.

• Downham Royal British Legion is hosting a coffee morning in the town hall bar rooms, today from 9.30am to noon.

• Oops. Greedy gremlins got into the latest Downham News system to gobble up the truly appetising fact that the new Arbuckles restaurant on the A10 is actually open from 8am – 10.30pm, and not 1pm as was stated. Ten extra hours of feasting time: Yum.

• Finally, yes, the builders working opposite the old cinema in High Street are operating a manual Stop/Go sign system …and yes, it is a bit odd they're doing it on a one-way street. Truth is the system is actually for pedestrians…because many will step on regardless. One-way traffic, in the meanwhile, screeches to a standstill. You can't win 'em all...