The Post Office Ltd has announced that eight post offices in the Derbyshire Dales are under threat of closure.

The eight threatened post offices are:

Market Place, Ashbourne
Moorhall, Bakewell
Uppertown, Bonsall
Edensor
Barley Mow, Kirk Ireton
Matlock Bank, Matlock
Starkholmes, Matlock
Marston Montgomery

Councillor Lewis Rose, OBE, Leader of Derbyshire Dales District Council, said: “I am very disappointed to see yet further cuts proposed to rural services. The District Council is supporting Postwatch, the national campaigning body for postal service users, in its goal to ensure the needs of affected communities are fully taken into account by Post Office Ltd. I would like to encourage residents to send me their comments to feed into the District Council’s response to Postwatch.”

Residents should send their comments to: Lewis Rose c/o Democratic Services, Town Hall, Matlock DE4 3NN before 30 October to have them included in the District Council’s response.

Post Office Ltd. will end its consultation period on 12 November 2007.

Whilst Postwatch cannot stop closures from happening, it will investigate every proposal to ensure that customers' reasonable access to post office services is retained.

The Government has announced that Post Office Ltd will close 2,500 post offices across the country. The closure programme will begin later this year, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008. This will leave a post office network of approximately 11,800 post offices nationally once the closure programme is finished.

The post office network lost more than £200 million in 2006/7, and there are four million fewer customer visits every week compared with 2 years ago. Rural post offices have been hit hard by the decline in Government business. Revenue from Government transactions fell by £168 million in 2005/6.