Eleven South Ayrshire post offices face closure

Jul 25 2008

ELEVEN South Ayrshire Post Offices have been earmarked for closure.

The move has sparked outrage among customers, staff and politicians.

They insist that it will decimate communities and force customers to travel miles to access the vital service.

Forehill and Newtonhead branches are among those singled out for closure along with Moorfield in Prestwick and Southend in Girvan.

Village Post Offices including those in Loans, Straiton, Minishant, Kirkmichael, Dunure and Turnberry are also set for closure as part of the government backed review of the service across the UK.

The stand-alone Dailly branch will close and the service will be moved into a village store.

The branch at Rankinston is also among others elsewhere in Ayrshire singled out for closure as part of the review. The existing Post Office at Ochiltree will close too, although a scaled down branch will open in a village shop.

Angry customers at Forehill Post Office have already started a petition in a bid to try and save the branch.

Pensioner Dorothy Stewart said she has used the branch for 43 years.

She said: I first came in here to collect my family allowance – now I’m collecting my pension.

“Closing this office would be a terrible move. They’ll be splitting up communities.”

And regular customer Ron Smith, 64, added: “The Post Office are supposed to be providing a service – not taking it away.

“They’re asking 90-year-olds to trail into town when there’s a perfectly good office here. It’s a joke.”

Former Kirkmichael councillor Jean Wilson warned that the decision could sound the death knell for the village which has been stripped of its facilities over the years.

She pointed out: “We'll soon have nothing left in Kirkmichael – no pubs, no toilets, and now no Post Office.

“And that's supposed to be progress.”

A series of public meetings has already been arranged by Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock MP Sandra Osborne.

She said: “I will be expecting detailed reasons from the Post Office for their proposals to close certain post office branches.

“At first glance they appear to have plucked them out of thin air.

“Where they are proposing changes to the way villages are to receive their postal services, I will be arguing for the maximum possible service to be provided.”

And Ayr MSP John Scott branded the proposal “unwelcome” and insisted that it will hurt the vulnerable most.

He said: “I have already made clear to Post Office managers that I am very much opposed to the loss of these branches, as I am sure are most local people, and I am calling on them to reconsider and withdraw the threat of closure from them.

"There is a high level of dependency on post offices particularly amongst the elderly, those with poorer health, and those living in deprived areas.”