THE first confirmed casualty in the slashing of the post office network in North Yorkshire has been announced.

Sonia and Darren Leeming's Hawnby branch was named in November as one of 50 facing the axe across York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire.

The couple considered the post office so vital to their rural community, they offered to run it for free.

But their bid to keep their post office has failed.

The crushing blow came as York MP Hugh Bayley revealed he had managed to secure a special debate on post office closures in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Mrs Leeming, who has run the post office in Hawnby, near Helmsley, with her husband for the last seven years, says closing it will leave local people in the community isolated.

"The offer to work for free for their people' has never even been acknowledged by the people's' post office," she said.

"We told them we were fully prepared to run this branch for nothing - that is how strongly we feel about its survival.

"All we needed them to do was allow us to keep the computer we use."

She said Post Office Ltd had now changed its plans for an outreach service to replace the branch.

Instead of an "inadequate" two-hour a week mobile service, she said bosses planned to run a limited home service, where telephone orders are delivered to customer homes.

She said: "This is further confirmation that Post Office Ltd have no idea or care for rural communities, as they don't even deliver the post to many homes in this community, choosing to leave it in a box at the end of the drive.

"I hope it's not your pension you're going to ring and order."

In November, The Press exclusively revealed the list of 50 branches proposed for closure in our region.

Sub-postmasters are this week being told whether or not their business has been spared the axe.

In Westminster this afternoon, Mr Bayley will use a 30-minute debate secured with Postal Affairs Minister, Pat McFadden, to grill him on Post Office Ltd's failure to release information he claims is vital to the decision on whether a branch should be closed - and to call for the process to be halted.

"I'll remind him that I asked last year what change there had been in the number of customers using post offices in York since the last round of closures three years ago," he said. "I never got that answer.

"Post Office Ltd went ahead with the proposed closures without releasing these figures.

"I believe the company should stop these closures.

"If they want to close branches they should make the case with the information on the amount business has fallen," Mr Bayley said.