Post Office 'not considering local needs'

The charity also says that a multi-million pound, celebrity-studded, TV advertising campaign is in poor taste and that some of the money used for 'The People's Post Office' advertisements should be spent on helping local community organisations prepared to step in and run replacement services themselves.

AirS claims that the Post Office has so far ignored an offer to work with it on devising DIY community-run post office services to replace lost branches.

In particular, the charity criticises the targeting of two initiatives for closure '“ the post office and caf in Upper Dicker in East Sussex and the post office in the former stables of a pub at the Franklands Arms in Washing-ton, West Sussex '“ both established by local communities to preserve vital services.

In Washington the community is currently developing a community-owned shop with support from AirS and had hoped to re-locate the post office into the new shop '“ it has concerns that the potential closure of the existing post office could impact on these plans.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette January 9