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Wednesday, 9 January 2008, 11:21 GMT

Final stamp on Post Office cuts

Post Office More than 40 post offices are to be axed in the latest round of closures across the central belt, Glasgow and Argyll and Bute, it has been confirmed.

The announcement comes after Royal Mail announced plans to shut 44 branches in October.

Four post offices on the original list have been spared - Cultenhove in Stirling, Auchenback in Barrhead, and Kelvindale and Hyndland, in Glasgow.

In total, 44 branches will shut, including four not on the October list.

The additional four branches to close will be Pollokshaws in Glasgow, the university branch in Stirling, Westmuir Street in Glasgow, and Clynder in Helensburgh.

The Royal Mail said the first of them would close in February.

But it insisted 99% of the population would retain their existing branch or live within a mile of an alternative after the closures.

Full list of offices facing closure

The plans are part of a wider restructuring of Post Office services throughout the UK.

Post Office chiefs said the six-week consultation period brought more than 5,600 responses, and 35 meetings took place.

Sally Buchanan, the Post Office's network development manager for Scotland, said: "These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly.

"We have considered very carefully all the comments made during the public consultation.

"We believe that the amended plan offers our customers across greater Glasgow, Central Scotland and Argyll and Bute the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the government's minimum access criteria and the other factors the UK Government has asked us to consider."

Reduced services

Stirling Council criticised the decision to close five post offices in its area and now intends to take its case to the UK Government.

The authority's assistant chief executive, Rebecca Maxwell, said: "We believe that the consultation process has not been sufficiently detailed or transparent.

"Our submission will highlight our concerns about the consultation process, the business case made by Post Office Ltd, the analysis on which the decisions about closure have been made and the restricted role allowed to the local council in the process."

The SNP also criticised the consultation as a "farce".

Sandra White, SNP MSP for Glasgow region, said that while two of the city's post offices had been reprieved, two more had taken their place on the closure list.

"The public and Scotland's post offices are in an impossible situation," she said.

"If they save themselves from closure, they simply condemn the post office down the road."

Proposals for the Highlands, which would see 18 branches closed and 11 replaced by reduced services, were announced on Tuesday.

Branches to close in central and south west Scotland are:

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Related to this story:
Rural post offices to be closed (08 Jan 08 |  Highlands and Islands )
Post Office closures review call (01 Jan 08 |  Scotland )
Office closures already delivered (23 Oct 07 |  South of Scotland )
Post Office earmarks 44 closures (23 Oct 07 |  Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West )
The loss of a community lifeline (23 Oct 07 |  Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West )
Post offices to learn their fate (09 Oct 07 |  Tayside and Central )
2,500 more post offices to close (17 May 07 |  UK Politics )

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