Royal Mail axes 37 post offices

The closure decision follows a six-week consultation process

Royal Mail is axing 37 post offices across County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire.

The closures are part of wider moves to reduce the number of branches nationally by up to 2,500.

A Royal Mail spokesman said the first closures were scheduled to take place towards the end of June.

Areas affected include Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Northallerton and Richmond.

In addition to the closures, another two branches in North Yorkshire are being replaced by limited services in village halls.

These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly Adrian Wales, Royal Mail spokesman A list of the post office closures

Stockton South MP Dari Taylor, of Labour, said it was a "disgrace" that many small communities would be left without a post office.

She said: "It seems to me that the management of Royal Mail has only one competence and this is to simply close post offices as opposed to being innovative in their attempts to make them profitable."

The closure decision follows a six-week consultation process.

Adrian Wales, post office network development manager for the North East, said 99% of people in the region would still be within one mile of a branch, or would see no change to their existing services

He said: "These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly.

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