North Devon post office closures confirmed

By ojones

THE Post Office is to press ahead with the closure of branches across North Devon, it confirmed on Tuesday.

The announcement followed a six week consultation period during which 7,500 people gave their views.

There was no reprieve for any of the North Devon post offices earmarked for closure.

But at Shebbear — where the proposal was to replace the post office with an outreach service — there was a glimmer of hope.

The Post Office said its proposal was under further review and decisions would be announced shortly.

Postmaster of Shebbear Post Office, Keith Horwell, said: “We have no idea why this has happened – we have not been told why.

“I suspect that there have been objections from Postwatch. If Post Office had been swayed by our submissions, they would have left it open.

“It now enters a new process where there are five levels – each one with someone higher in Postwatch and the Post Office. If they fail to agree, it will go to the next level and keeps climbing until both sides are able to agree if we are going to live or die.

“We are just in limbo again – we have been there since February. I just wish they would make their minds up so we can get on with the rest of our lives.

“It is so frustrating as we cannot do anything with the business until decisions are made.”

The announcement is a blow for campaigners in communities who had fiercely fought the proposals.

Villagers from Bishops Nympton, including TV personality Johnny Kingdom, even delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street.

Mr Kingdom said: “We are disgusted. We fought very hard and the village doesn't deserve this. It is awful. People are shocked by this news.”

Catherine Baughn, owner of Bishops Nympton Post Office, said: “It's a very sad day for the village and for Devon as a community.

“The whole idea behind this is wrong, we should be supporting our local stores and services, but now the village will almost certainly lose its shop.

“The shop will close some time between October 20 and December 22 and, although I don't think there is any process for appeal, we will certainly be looking into it.

“I'd like to say a big thank you from myself, my sister and my mother to all those customers who campaigned so actively on our behalf, it showed great community spirit.

“No doubt there will be a lot of very upset people in the village today.”

Villagers in Buckland Brewer expressed anger at the decision to close their post office and replace it with an outreach solution.

They were in defiant mood following the announcement and vowed to fight on.

Local councillor Adam Symons said: “We are astounded that the Post Office still plan to shut Buckland Brewer.

“We have demonstrated how much support there is for this community facility, and we really are gobsmacked that they are still going to close it. “Two years ago, £26,000 of public money was spent on opening the community shop and post office. Now the Government is spending nearly the same amount to shut it down again. This is madness.”

Offers of help to keep the post office open came from Devon County Council.

Humphrey Temperley, who is county councillor for the area, said: “We are currently in negotiations with Post Office Ltd to see whether we can meet the costs of turning the outreach service into a hosted service, back in the community shop. It is imperative that we keep this open.”

North Devon MP Nick Harvey felt the county had taken a “very heavy hit” compared with other counties and said the decision by the Post Office was “certainly disappointing.”

However, he believed there was still “something to play for” as regards the shape of future outreach services.

“They haven't yet settled on what the actual outreach model is to be so I think there is still scope for quite a lot of negotiation on what they might look like,” he said.

“One of the ones I have been taking a very active interest in is Bishops Nympton. I am very disappointed they are pressing ahead with closing it but if they were potentially going to look at an outreach service inside the existing shop — where the existing post office is — that would probably be far better for the village and for the shop than a visiting mobile would be.

“So it is a question of whether or not terms could be agreed with the shopkeeper that would make it worthwhile to do that.”

Geoffrey Cox, MP for Torridge and West Devon, said: “I am personally devastated for the communities, the villages, the vulnerable, the elderly and the infirm who will be affected and will suffer as a consequence of these disastrous decisions. They are wrong. They were proven to be so by the most compelling arguments.

“I am in a state of complete shock. The Post Office has appeared to have ignored the thousands of people who have put forward well argued, relevant and well informed cases for their post office.

“They (the Post Office) have simply not listened to a word that has been said to them.

“The only glimmer of hope is that Postwatch, the consumer organisation, whom I met several times, have decided to appeal against the decision to close Shebbear.

“We will now concentrate all our energies into trying to ensure that at least Shebbear is salvaged from the wreckage that this badly thought out plan will cause in Torridge.

“We can have no confidence even with Postwatch's support we will succeed but we have to be determined that we will save Shebbear post office because it is among the many crazy decisions and perhaps one of the craziest that I have seen.

“I always suspected we were engaged in a sham and the consultation will appear to many people as just a sham.

“I know that Postwatch is also deeply concerned at the quality of decision making in many of these cases, “ he added.

The MP criticised the Post Office's response to the consultation but reserved his most scathing remarks for the Government who, he said, had mandated the compulsory closure programme without clear and effective safeguards for vulnerable, rural communities.

“It is the Government that turned loose the fox among the chickens, and it is no wonder that, given carte blanche, it gobbled so many of them up.”

The post office branches which will close are: Barbrook, Lynton; Bishops Tawton; Barnstaple Street, East-the-Water, Bideford; Goodleigh; Lynmouth; Portland Street, Ilfracombe; Seaside, Combe Martin; Sutcombe.

Branches that will be replaced by an outreach service are: Ashreigney; Ashwater; Bishops Nympton; Bratton Fleming; Bridgerule; Buckland Brewer; Burrington; Chittlehamholt; Clovelly; Langtree; Meeth; Northlew; Rackenford; St Giles on the Heath; West Buckland; West Down, near Ilfracombe.