Two city post offices saved but one more added to hit list of 11

Published on Tuesday 21 October 2008 09:50

TWO city post offices have been saved from closure – but another one has been added to the list of branches to shut.

Royal Mail today confirmed 11 post offices in Edinburgh will close, along with nine in other parts of the Lothians, as part of the UK-wide drive to shut 2500 branches.

But Calder Crossway has been dropped from the closure programme after the only bus service linking its customers to the next nearest branch in Wester Hailes was withdrawn.

And Elm Row, at the top of Leith Walk, has also been reprieved because of uncertainty over what the planned redevelopment of the nearby St James Centre would mean for the post office there.

However, post office bosses are now proposing to close the branch at Oxgangs Broadway to make up for the two that have been saved.

They say it is just half a mile away from the next nearest branch in Colinton Mains Drive and there are good bus connections. A full six-week consultation on that proposal will be launched on November 4.

Today's confirmation that almost all the branches on the closure list published in August will shut within the next three months will be greeted with disappointment in communities.

More than 3000 people signed a petition to save Warrender Park post office, which stays open until 7.30pm on Saturdays.

And council chiefs highlighted three branches they wanted spared as a priority, including Calder Crossway, but also Cramond and Magdalene Drive.

Edinburgh South Lib Dem MSP Mike Pringle said the decision to close Warrender Park was a "hammer blow".

Mark Lazarowicz, Labour MP for Edinburgh North & Leith, said he was delighted Elm Row had been saved but he was disappointed there had been no reprieve for Goldenacre, while SNP Lothians MSP Ian McKee welcomed the decision on Calder Crossway, but added: "It is disgraceful now Oxgangs has been added. This sounds like pure spite."

Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat MP John Barrett said he was "very disappointed" neither of the threatened branches in his constituency, Cramond and Dalmeny, had been saved.

During the six-week public consultation, Post Office Ltd received 3532 responses and attended more than 100 meetings.

Sally Buchanan, Post Office Ltd's network development manager for Scotland, said: "These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly. We have considered carefully all the comments made.

"We believe the amended plan offers customers across Edinburgh, the Lothians and the South of Scotland the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the UK Government's minimum access criteria and the other factors it has asked us to consider."