A TOP Post Office boss is to meet councillors tonight (Thursday) for talks on the closure of more than 20 sub post-offices in North Yorkshire - 12 of them in Ryedale.

County, borough and parish councillors will be questioning Nick Turner, Post Office external relations manager, at a meeting of the county council's Yorkshire coast and moors area committee.

The chairman, Coun Martin Smith, said: "This will be an excellent opportunity for the people most affected by these proposals to learn at first hand just how the closure decisions were arrived at."

He added: "This is a matter which is causing a great deal of concern in the county and it is good that an official of the Post Office is to attend the meeting."

The county's older people's champion, Coun Shelagh Marshall, who has been leading the county council's opposition to the closures, said: "A strong case can be made against closure based on the distance people will have to travel to the nearest alternative, and the lack of public transport."

As well as the outright closure of the 22 sub-offices, the plan proposes a further 18 will become "outreach" offices with restricted opening times.

"There is no doubt that the people who will be most hard hit will be the elderly. It will be important to ensure that where opening times are restricted for outreach offices, they coincide with the payment of old-age pensions."

Margaret Timbrell, sub-postmistress at Nunnington Post Office, which has been targeted for closure, said: "There has been a great deal of dismay in the village about the news. It will deprive the village of a point of contact - somewhere they can meet - because people do value that opportunity."

She has used a room in her home, Jasmine Cottage, as the post office for the past seven years.

Villagers will have to travel to Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside or Ampleforth - but unless they have their own transport they will be stranded due to Nunnington not having a bus service, added Mrs Timbrell.

The closure of Slingsby's Post Office will cause severe difficulties for people not only in the village but in neighbouring communities, said sub-postmaster Tony Hodgson.

"Ours is the only post office between Malton and Helmsley because all the others in such villages as Hovingham, Amotherby, Stonegrave and Swinton, have been shut over recent years."

Mr Hodgson said younger people would be affected as they use his post office for mobile phone top-up facilities. "A lot of people use the post office for bank transactions, especially pensioners. It will cause them real hardship."

But his shop will still be open, providing a wide range of groceries and general goods, as well as its renowned home-baking.

  • Post offices facing complete closure in Ryedale are Church Street, Norton and Wass, while it is proposed to replace the following with an outreach service: Allerston, Sherburn, Hawnby, Weaverthorpe, West Heslerton, Huttons Ambo, Nunnington, Slingsby, Terrington and Foxholes.