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YOUR VIEWS:

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Once again government shows how out of touch it is with the feelings of the people. Can we have someone to govern on our behalf and LISTEN to us, instead of TELLING us and governing OVER us? No one is in favour of closing Post Offices, so why do it ?

The Cadens

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Hello,
I am incredibly shocked and upset about the closure of Hardwick Road Post office in Pontefract. This is for a number of reasons. We use it for our business banking, for which they offer a fantastic range of services backed up by a proffessional and friendly customer service.

I go into the post office for our business at least every other day and have seen it to be a very busy and friendly shop. It is obviously a centre for the community with a lot of the local elderly residents using the post office and shop and everybody saying hello and knowing each others names.

It really would be a blow to the local community and this saddens me greatly.

From a business point of view we use the post office and the service we have recieved has been excellent... which is not always the case at all post offices. The Hardwick road post office is always busy and is used by a very large number of the local community and due to it's easy access, and position on the outer edge of Pontefract it is also used by people coming in to pontefract from surrounding local villages. Also it is one of the top 25 performing post offices in Leeds and Wakefield so HOW can they justify closing it????? This amazes me.. normally if there is a financial reason for closing a post office then you can think well... if it doesn't pay it's way ...BUT this post office does! This decision obviously has not been thought out at all.

WE WANT OUR POST OFFICE

regards,

Julia Beaumont

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It's a long way between many post office's for many elderly and disabled people. Not much thought has been given to the local population that have no means of transport other than a bus. The fact that buses either do not run on time or all run together is another problem faced by the public wanting to get from one area to another. The closure of so many Post Office's will cause untold problems in areas that do not have other services close by

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Please save our post office Bradford Road and Lofthouse you must think of people with no transport young and old the will not be able to walk to their post office any more.

It will also be extra cost in transport and time in waiting in a queue I find I can not even go to the post office in York Street Leeds in my dinner hour now because of the waiting

L R Rogers

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I have an 82 year old uncle who manages to get to his local post office with the help of his mobility scooter, but the nearest bank or cash machine is over 1 mile away, I understand he can have his pension paid in to his bank account – but how will he actually get the cash?

Jenny Simpson

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If post offices are closing, due, the government say, to lack of funds, who is paying for the tv advertising campaign?
Secondly, what are the old folk to do? They are often infirm and unable to get to their nearest post office and some of these pensioners do not have a bank account. What are they to do?

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Closure would be a crime.
Good people run the post office in Far Headingley, the community all use it. Many can not do without it.
To shut it is a crime against our community.
We can all walk to it, saving traffic congestion and helping to save the environment and reduce our impact on climate change.
Its time to be tough on the cause of this closure crime.
No more Post offices to be closed anywhere.
Our Political masters know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Sustainably yours

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The closure of Kirk Lane Post Office is an apalling idea.

It is a very busy local post office,yet they always have time for everybody.

They service a large elderly population who would be unlikely to manage the walk up the steep hill to the Post Office on Yeadon High Street.

This decision has clearly been made by someone who does not know the area and has made the decision based on a map,some drawing pins and a piece of string!

This Post Office not only serves the local community,it is a HUGE PART of that community.

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The decision to close post offices is a sad reflection of our times. They provide an invaluable service to the community and with their removal part of these communities will die. If it is post offices now, what will be next, bus services, job centres, libraries, community centres? I am outraged at this decision and feel everything should be done to ensure their continued service now and in the future. At the very worst they could reduce the hours or open for business one or two days less a week, but to take them away from people who rely on them is criminal.

Matthew P. Nicholson

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Just what does the Government have against Beeston?

Many people were suspicious that the Post Office Closure Announcement was deliberately delayed until after the Leeds City Council Elections. Now we all understand why.

The YEP is right to mount a strong campaign against these closures. No one outside the government's rapidly diminishing circle of friends supports the closure programme. Many Labour MPs, to their credit oppose it.

Three of the four Post Offices in Beeston will close. This is an area which already suffers from underinvestment; now we see an attempt to take vital public services away from us. Beeston has roughly 2% of the population of Leeds, but roughly 14% of the Post Office Closures in Leeds are in Beeston.

It is time for the residents of Beeston to fight back.

Robert Winfield

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Newall post office in Otley is a lifeline for many elderly and disbled people not to mention the only post office where local people do not have to wait in huge queues. The tourist trade is good for the town, but makes the main post office very busy, not to mention that there is no parking (unless disabled) outside and nearby carparks are usually full, but even when not we have to pay if we park in them. Our local postmistress is fantastic and asset to the town and most of all the people that live here, service with a smile and a little cheer invaluable these days and if this is how the post office repay people for their hard work and devotion to their job then i for one will take my business elsewhere and close my post office accounts. The people of Otley need this post office and for the elderly and disabled it is a lifeline and the only form of socialising for some. They should leave our post office alone.

S.Beer

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Dear Editor.

I would like to add to your article "Get facts right to save post offices" (May 10th 2008) and the warning from a Conservative MP that emotion is not enough to succeed in the closure battle. Post Offices are at the heart of local communities. The Government's plans to close between 200 and 250 of Yorkshire's 1,244 post office branches shows that they are not really committed to community cohesion or cutting the need to travel. They say 95% of people living in Sheffield will have a post office within one mile. This fails to understand the reality of many people's lives, especially those who are elderly or infirm, where one mile can be a significant distance. Those that can are more likely to get in the car and go elsewhere when they lack good bus services, local shops, schools and community facilities.


Back in 2006 Manchester City Council produced a report called "The Last Post" showing how local authorities could provide practical support to keep post offices open. In June 2007 Green Councillors proposed that Sheffield adopted some of these measures but the proposal was rejected by the other parties.

We will now be examining in detail the outcome of a Local Government Association meeting on 14th May. That conference is looking how Local Authorities like Sheffield can learn from Essex County Council and more than 50 other councils who have registered an interest in working with Post Office Ltd to see what can be done to support the Post Office Network.

We believe Sheffield City Council should be adopting similar measures.

Yours Sincerely.

Sheffield Green Party Councillor Bernard Little.

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are these postoffices earmarked for closure definetly closing. I am enquiring about 38 heights drive armley leeds ls12 3su.

please let me know when you think it will close . How are old people going to walk of the estate down a hill and back, didnt the goverment think that the heights estate is uneasy for the elderly to walk of the estate because its on a hill. Or is it just money, money,money to them.

How can we save this postoffice

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Sir
At the present time here in Hunslet Carr Leeds, we have a shop which used to be a post office but is still allowed to sell internal stamps but not overseas one. The nearest post office now is down Church street ,along walk or a bus ride away. Why cant this hop sell ALL types opf stamps.

T L Hunslet Leeds

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I am concerned about the closure of 32 Kirk Lane, Yeadon, Post Office. I have today received a copy of the consultation document, which quotes the frequency of transport to the nearest Post Offices, the distances, and the fact that these are reached over "hilly terrain". Given that so many elderly people live in the area, and that Kirk Lane is a lifeline to them, closure of this branch would be a real loss. Firstly, the buses are NOT frequent, nor are they reliable. The main Yeadon Post Office is always packed, busy and though the service delivered is adequate, it does not begin to meet the standards of help, friendliness and efficiency provided at Kirk Lane. Having used this small Post Office for over 30 years, I speak from personal, customer-satisfied experience.

I do not believe that Post Offce Limited has properly examined the demographics in this area, nor made itself fully aware that transport difficulties have resulted in recent meetings between FirstBus and residents. Therefore, to actually get to Yeadon High Street or Guiseley Post Offices, a long walk up a hill called, appropriately "The Steep", or down and back the main road to Guiseley, would be necessary. This is not something easy for many in our community to accomplish.

Kirk Lane serves its customers and community with levels of skill and customer-focused attitudes that go far beyond the norm in a service sector environment. I have witnessed this often, seeing older people being dealt with so patiently and kindly; nothing is too much trouble for Susan and her staff. To deny such people the friendly contact and good service, as well as depriving the postmistress and workers of their living, is a short term, money grabbing solution.

On a final note; perhaps if the television advertising campaign currently running was taken off, and the money used to improve service delivery in the small post offices under threat, a sensible solution might emerge. I certainly hope so, I want our post office to stay.

Anne Moore

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It can't be right to close both Beeston Road and Cross Flatts Post offices, if only for the sake of the elderly.
Beeston/Cross Flatts is an area with an aging population and a generation who are used to managing their finances by simply collecting their pensions etc and paying their bills promptly by cash.
Surely their must be another solution as a lot of these elderly pensioners are unable to make the journey into town to the post office available which even now has extremely long queues.
Ellen Elwood


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I live in holbeck leeds there used to be 2 post offices now theyve closed down so i go to beeston they have 4 post offices but ive just read your list of closures and 3 are closing down so that leaves one and thats in old lane thats 3 miles away what are people who are on benefits who dont have a bank account going to do all go to old lane on benefit days and to get they money most people live on they benefit from week to week i cant see a bank letting you do that this is why they brought in this payment card so you could get your money when you needed it p.batley

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The Government has deliberately run the post offices down as a direct result of the E.U policy which no one of the other country's take any notice of and as a result the older population and those in rural areas are suffering badly as a result when will the people of this country going to wake up and get us out of Europe altogether

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use it or lose it

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We now know why these details were held back deliberately by the Government until after the Local Elections. They do not care about local communities, despite all their posturing. We are seeing a general erosion of local community life with the closure of local shops, post offices and public houses forced out of business by taxation!

Perhaps this is their way of persuading people to use local transport, because this is the only way some elderly people will be able to visit a Post Office miles away.

Yours Sincerely
Dave Hill

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Can you tell me what the Leeds city council is going to do with the closure of at less 21 post office within the boundary of Leeds as there are a hell of a lot of old age person and young person with children (million's) that need a post office for both benefit's and pension's they will all have to have a banker's card to get there pension that the royal mail. are they going to express there concern's regarding the closure of the post office's.

has there been a meeting with the government and the post office to close down the relevant post office's with the uk or is the government giving the ok to close these post office's
regards
Michael Duffy

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