Elderly protest over PO closures

Campaigners say elderly or disabled people will suffer

Pensioners from London have held a protest against the plans to close thousands of post offices.

They demonstrated outside the Post Office Ltd's headquarters in Old Street, north London.

Members of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) are worried about the closures as the elderly rely on them "as a lifeline to the wider community."

The Post Office closure programme began in 2000 to restructure the company by closing 3,000 urban branches.

Les Evans, chair of the London Older People's Strategies Group and a retired post worker, said: "In areas where post offices have already closed, people are queuing round the block and kept waiting because the remaining branches simply can't cope with the workload."

Dot Gibson, secretary of the NPC Greater London region, said: "Post Office Limited is closing local post offices throughout the capital and in towns all over the country.

"This has had a devastating impact on the facilities available to pensioners - many of whom rely on their local post office as a lifeline to the wider community."