YORK'S MP has gone to war in Westminster with mail chiefs over their decision to swing an axe through North Yorkshire's post office network.

In an angry attack on the Post Office during a special House of Commons debate Hugh Bayley secured on the company's controversial closure programme, he accused it of being "a law unto itself" and keeping information about how threatened branches are performing from the public.

And he said he believed it was time for the Government to "rein in" the company's plans, which have put 50 post offices in York and North and East Yorkshire on a hit-list of proposed closures.

Mr Bayley said: "The Post Office gets £1.7 billion of public money every year, and therefore it needs to be accountable so we can see how that money is being spent.

"The fact they are unable to answer, or choose not to answer, questions about the number of transactions in York over the last three years is contemptuous to Parliament and the public.

"The only acceptable reason for them to close branches is that they are losing business, so they have to show how much business they have lost. If they can't show that, there is no reason for single branch in York to be closed."

He also attacked plans to shut the Micklegate branch, saying: "It is the biggest sub-post office in York with 2,000 customers a week, but instead the Post Office wants to keep open, with a huge public subsidy, branches which have two or four customers a day.

"It's not sane, it's not rational, and the people of York aren't stupid. The Post Office's consultation is fundamentally flawed - they should be doing it again and making it clear how their transactions have changed, so people know whether the cuts they are making are proportionate or not."


Village dismay

A SECOND North Yorkshire post office has learned it will definitely close later this year as part of the cutbacks.

The post office at Tollerton, near Easingwold, is expected to shut by the end of May, although the bad news for villagers was eased by the fact it will be partnered with another branch to allow it to keep selling stamps and providing services such as tax discs and pensions.

But functions such as special deliveries will be lost, and Phil Lancaster, who has run the branch in the village shop for almost nine years, said: "We tried to keep it open, but unfortunately the writing has been on the wall.

"We don't know what impact it will have on the shop, although it could eventually mean a drop in income of between £10,000 and £12,000 a year.

"It's disappointing, but we will just have to make the best of it, and at least the services we will be able to keep mean it will be business as usual for most people."