MP's Survey Shows Opposition To Post Office Closure

6.31.14pm GMT Tue 18th Nov 2003

Around 300 Twickenham residents in the vicinity of the Heath road post office have replied to a questionnaire sent out by MP Vincent Cable to express their views on the proposed closure. 48% of them use the post office frequently; 31% occasionally. 44% said they would find the closure highly inconvenient and 31% somewhat inconvenient.

60 residents said they would face serious problems getting to another post office because of disability or overall lack of mobility. Vincent Cable has written to the Post Office consumer watch dog, Post Watch, which is reviewing the situation.

Vincent Cable said: "This is a difficult closure to fight since the postmaster, Mr Saggarson, has expressed wish to retire. But the survey shows that even one of the less controversial closures entails great inconvenience for some residents and hardship for those who simply lack the mobility to travel half a mile because they are disabled or elderly".

"We also need to be careful that Twickenham does not suffer the same fate as Kew, losing smaller post offices and then facing the closure of a bigger office on which large numbers of people have come to depend".