POST OFFICE CLOSURE PLAN MOVES CLOSER TO HOME

Plans agreed between the government and the Royal Mail for mass post office closures are moving closer to home. The plans for Devon have not been announced yet: the list will be made public on May 20. There will then be a consultation period, and the post offices will close on August 19.

There are roughly 350 post offices in Devon and approximately 70 are expected to close. About half of these will be in rural areas.

The future viability of some village shops will suffer if they lose the post office business and the "footfall" it brings into the shop. So anything up to 50 village shops could be under threat.

Some councils are exploring with Royal Mail to run some of the closing post offices with the local communities. But this clearly won't be viable in very many cases.

The plan to close one in every five branches was taken by the government last year. Post offices are vital facilities for local communities and their closure are likely to hit residents hard.