Another Post Office Closure to hit Twickenham

3.55.45pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 13th Oct 2003

Vincent Cable MP presenting the first 100,000 petitions against Post Office closures to Number 10

The Post Office is proposing to close the Heath Road sub post office as part of the programme of cutting back on its urban network. The closure follows that of the sub post office in Stanley Road Teddington (and others in the borough in Kew and Barnes).

The proposal is to close the sub post office - owned by Mr Saggar - and direct customers instead to the Kings Street branch, the Staines Road 'Common' branch (which will be refurbished) and the Strawberry Hill branch in Tower Road, respectively .4, .4 and .7 miles away.

MP Vincent Cable said: "this closure is by no means the last. I expect another four on the Twickenham side and four on the Richmond side as a result of this government inspired rationalisation programme. Those who will suffer the greatest inconvenience are the elderly and less mobile people for whom a journey to and from the Heath Road office is not easy

especially in mid-winter. I am writing to residents in the surrounding streets to see how much difficulty this will cause."

"I have a lot of sympathy with the owners. They will lose 40% of their income as a result of 'automatic credit transfer' - the abolition of pension and benefit books - and not much has been done to help post offices develop alternative sources of income. Naturally, sub post masters want to take the offer of compensation to quit rather than struggle on".

"This is sad on another level. This is my own office's local post office branch and the staff are always helpful and efficient".