Thousands fight to save post offices (From Witney Gazette)

Thousands fight to save post offices

10:43pm Wednesday 20th February 2008 in Headlines

MORE than 4,670 people have already put pen to paper in a bid to stave off a programme of post office closures across the county.

The action is in response to a Government-backed cost-cutting exercise to shut 22 of Oxfordshire's sub-post offices and limit the opening hours of five others.

One MP, Wantage's Ed Vaizey, has collected more than 250 letters.

The branches at Villiers Road, Bicester; Orchard Way, Banbury; and Grandpont, Oxford, have each tallied up more than 700 signatures.

Public meetings have also been held and some customers have measured the exact distance to their nearest branch in a bid to change management minds.

In the village of Stanton St John, east of Oxford, parish councillors are giving residents guidance on writing letters to Post Office Ltd and a community protest is planned.

'It will just kill the community completely. This is like a little centre of the universe for them'

Mollie Ingrey, Stanton St John

At the village's under-threat branch, shop owner Mollie Ingrey said: "People have seen the post offices in Horton-cum-Studley, Beckley and other villages close, and they do not want this one to be the last to go.

"It will just kill the community completely. This is like a little centre of the universe for them."