POST OFFICE CLOSURES: Second wave of closures within a year
DONCASTER is set to be hit by its second wave of post office closures within a year, taking the borough's closure list to 10 in 10 months.
Post Office bosses have announced plans to close the rural offices at Clayton and Barnburgh, just 10 months after it revealed the closure of eight last October.
Talks about how to campaign to save the offices are set to start soon.
Councillor Doreen Woodhouse, whose Sprotbrough ward contains both sites, said: "I'm shocked at this and I think it is deplorable.
"In both villages, these are the only shops the people who live there have got. It is going to be a terrible loss.
"I don't think they've thought about the people - I think they've just thought about the money. They are villages without good bus services and I think it is going to mean a lot of hardship for the elderly and those who don't drive.
"The Government is often talking about people cutting down on emissions and car journeys, so this is stupid."
She plans to contact parish councillors representing both areas to discuss any next move to save the officers.
Yvonne Grainger, sub postmistress at Clayton Post Office, has won the North East region's Rural Post Office of the Year award twice. In 2006 it was runner up nationally.
She was taken by surprise by the announcement because she thought Doncaster's remaining post offices would be safe after last year's closure announcement.
She said: "Everyone here thought we would be all right, not realising we were in another section of the review.
"We also thought we would be okay because there is absolutely nothing else in Clayton in the way of shops. If we lose the post office I don't think the shop would be able to carry on alone.
"We've got a seven week consultation period now and we are urging people to respond to that."
Yvonne has been running the office for seven years. She has had customers who travelled to her from Hooton Pagnell after their office closed about eight years ago. Now the nearest post office is expected to be Barnsley.
'Without this post office, there will be nothing else left'
Yvonne Grainger
"Without this post office, there will be nothing else left in Clayton," she said.
Last year the post office announced it would ditch its sites at Adwick-le-Street, Balby, Bennetthorpe, Fishlake, Hatfield Woodhouse, Hyde Park and Thorne Northfield and Wheatley Beckett Road.
Hexthorpe Post Office was spared the axe after the consultation period because of plans to build hundreds of new houses in the village.
The latest announcement has listed 53 offices across South Yorkshire and north Derbyshire for closure.
READ MORE
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POST OFFICE CLOSURES: Second wave of closures within a year
POST OFFICE CLOSURES: End of an era
POST OFFICE CLOSURES: Reaction has been shock
POST OFFICE CLOSURES: Full list of threatened offices
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Friday 25 May 2012
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