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Morley post office campaigners threaten legal action
DETERMINED post office supporters in Leeds are considering legal action after losing two branches in a recent cull.
Users of Newlands post office in Albert Drive, Morley and the nearby Brittania Road branch, want to make an official appeal against Post Office Ltd's decision, announced on Tuesday, to bring the axe down on the two outlets.
The Morley branches are just two of 22 in Leeds that will get the chop.
Across West Yorkshire, more than 60 are to close after impassioned campaigning failed to save all but two of the branches.
The saved branches – in Pontefract and Dewsbury – are in the constituencies of Government ministers.
Morley campaigners say losing the branches despite all their hard work is like getting " a bullet in the head".
The first of the affected Leeds branches is expected to close around August 12.
At the Newlands outlet yesterday, battling campaigners insisted they would fight for the branch – even though there is no official appeal process in place.
Morley town and city councillor Robert Finnigan said: "We have got to fight every last bit of the way to prevent this closure. We will certainly explore a legal challenge with the town council to see if that is an alternative.
"Clearly people are disillusioned with the consultation process.
"It's like Russian roulette – a spin round, one or two get saved and ultimately you get a bullet in the head like we have in this community."
His town council colleague Josie Jackson said local people had worked hard to build a strong case but their words had "fallen on deaf ears".
Post Office bossed have been ordered by the Government to close 2,500 branches nationwide in a bid to recover millions of pounds for the struggling network.
Ahead of the announcement of the final West Yorkshire 'hit-list' on Tuesday, thousands of people had taken part in petitions and demonstrations to try and save their local branches.
There has been widespread anger across the region at the final list – which barely changed from the 'proposed closures' list – with many branding the consultation process a "sham".
In Horsforth, which will lose its Station Road branch in the cull, local Lib Dem councillor Brian Cleasby accused bosses of being "short-sighted".
A spokesman for Post Office Ltd confirmed there was no official appeals process after a closure had been announced, adding that all feedback was taken into consideration during the public consultation.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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