POST OFFICE MOVE A SAD DAY FOR CHELTENHAM, SAYS MP

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 24th Apr 2008

COMMENTING ON TODAY'S MOVE OF CHELTENHAM CROWN POST OFFICE to WHSmith, Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood called it a 'sad day for Cheltenham'. Martin complained to Post Office Limited last year about the move, as did many local people - but Post Office Limited have pushed through the changes.

'The awful precedent is what happened in Coronation Square. There, a sub-post office was hosted by the newsagent McColl's and then axed without consultation when that became commercially inconvenient. Now that closure is being made permanent by the Post Office. The Government could give me no guarantee the same thing couldn't happen now to our main Crown Post Office.

The commercial priority behind all this is clear from the location of the new Post Office. It is sited upstairs in WHSmith just to increase traffic through their store. The interests of Post Office customers are obviously coming a poor second. Disabled and elderly customers in particular are going to be put to the inconvenience of taking a small lift upstairs. I have already written to Post Office Limited expressing my concern at the safety of vulnerable customers in the event of a fire but have not yet received a reply.'

It is sad to remember the main Post Office in its heyday on the Prom, reduced first to crowded premises on the High Street and now to this.'