Council leader slams post office closures as 'short-sighted '

Cllr Pam Doodes, leader of Wealden District Council, said it was 'short-sighted'.

She added: 'We made it very clear to the Post Office how we expect the district to grow over the next 20 years and the need to increase the infrastructure in order to support this.

'The South East Plan already states that it expects a further 8,000 homes to have been built in Wealden by 2026, and there are strong expectations that this figure will rise by a further 20 per cent.

'Throughout our own consultation on the future of the district, we have received the message loud and clear that more infrastructure is needed to support such growth. Post offices are an important part of the commercial and social infrastructure of our rural district which consists of thousands of small businesses. Yet instead of expanding its provision, Post Office Limited is hell bent on cutting back.

'We have also told Post Office Limited that the proportion of Wealden's elderly residents is expect to rise during this period. Within a mile of one of the post offices to be closed, 38 per cent of residents are already over retirement age. Closure of these post offices will only cause greater hardship to some of the Post Office's most vulnerable customers.

'I fear the closures the Post Office Limited announced last week are an extremely short-sighted measure, and one which it will come to regret in the future.

'We hope that those outlets which are having their official post office business taken away will continue to operate as much-needed local shops. Wealden District Council will try to support them however we can.'

Wealden District Council offers rural settlement rate relief of up to 80 per cent for the shops when they are the only remaining one serving a rural settlement. It also provides grant funding for Action in Rural Sussex to support local businesses.

The six Wealden Post Office to be closed are at Durgates, Wadhurst; Framfield; Hailsham Road, Heathfield; Town Row, Rotherfield; Upper Dicker; and Farmlands Way, Wannock.

Two more post offices to be closed serve Wealden residents but are just outside the district boundary. These are at Willingdon and North Chailey.