Stannington's good news in post office review

Posted by Richard Fletcher on Jan 23, 09 11:57 AM in News

Post office users in five Northumberland villages have received good news after a review into the proposed closures across the county.

Belsay, Gilsland, Netherton, Stannington and Rochester have all been successful after asking Post Office bosses to look again at their swathe of cuts.

Belsay has been upgraded from a hosted outreach service to a partnered outreach; Gilsland from a mobile outreach to a changed hosted outreach; Netherton from home service outreach to hosted outreach; Stannington will now be a changed hosted outreach; and Rochester is now a hosted outreach rather than a mobile outreach.

The five are the lucky few out of 22 changes that were reviewed, including three post offices already closed.

However, none of the village post offices earmarked for closure have been included in the changes, although Longframlington, Otterburn and Whitfield are still under review.

Fourstones, Humshaugh and Longhorsley, which were marked for a reduction in services, are also still being looked at.

Northumberland County Council says it was working with Post Office Ltd prior to consultation, helping communities put forward alternatives.

Leader of the council Coun Jeff Reid said: "We hope that by dialogue with the Post Office, we will not only be able to influence remaining proposals but will be better placed to respond to future changes.

"Right at the start we highlighted the impact of loss of services on Northumberland's communities. We are still hopeful that the needs of more of Northumberland's communities can be met."

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