Moors trek to nearest post office

A consultation has started on plans to axe post offices nationally

The owners of village post office said if it closed customers could be left facing a 10-mile round trip along a dirt path to access services.

Sonia and Darren Leeming, who run the Hawnby branch on the North York Moors, said the quickest way to the next branch was by a steep moor land track.

They said to go by car would be a 20-mile round trip but that many elderly customers could not drive.

The branch faces closure as part of a programme of cutbacks nationally.

A consultation has started on plans to axe 30 branches in North and East Yorkshire.

'Run for free'

The couple have been told they will have to cut their service to two hours per week from next March.

They said that would force the branch into closure, leaving residents isolated because the village did not even have a bus service.

The fact is the people who have come up with this decision have absolutely no idea about the real need of people up here Sonia Leeming

Mrs Leeming said they had offered to run the branch for free but Post Office officials rejected the idea.

"If you look on the map of closures, our area is just a vast void in the middle of the moors but lots of people live here," she said.

"The fact is the people who have come to this decision have absolutely no idea about the real need of the people up here."

The Post Office has proposed an "outreach service", which could include a mobile service visiting small communities or a "service within the premises of a local partner such as a pub landlord".

Adrian Wales, Post Office Ltd's network development manager for the North East, said: "Taking the decision to close any branch is always very difficult and we know will cause concern to many of our customers.

"We want to ensure that everyone who uses, relies on, or has any concern with Post Office services, is both fully aware of the proposed changes and able to give views on them."