SIR – Some 200 people packed into The New Fellowship Hall in Whitwell last Tuesday to hear from two Post Office Ltd representatives the reasons why Whitwell Post Office is being proposed for closure. I think it can be fairly said that the audience was not

SIR - Some 200 people packed into The New Fellowship Hall in Whitwell last Tuesday to hear from two Post Office Ltd representatives the reasons why Whitwell Post Office is being proposed for closure. I think it can be fairly said that the audience was not convinced by Post Office Ltd's reasoning which basically came down to the fact that it is a cost-cutting exercise. There were many questions and comments from the floor.

A local businessman explained the real difficulties he would encounter due to the loss to him of local banking facilities and postal services; a resident of Lime Tree House, the sheltered housing unit in the centre of Whitwell, explained that many of her fellow residents would not be fit enough to board a bus for Hitchin or Kimpton and certainly would not have the stamina for the two hour wait for a return trip; and a few pointed out that the population of the parish of St Paul's Walden contains quite a high percentage of elderly and infirm residents, exactly those people who would lose their independence and be hit hardest by the proposed Post Office closure.

Those who tried to probe the POL representatives about the financial facts behind their decision were frustrated by a lack of answers on that front. John Vaughan, the chair of St Paul's Walden Parish Council, urged everybody to write in to the POL Consultation Team with their objections and comments. The closing date for objections is August 26.

DEREK SCOTT

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