A sub-post office which relies heavily on pensioners collecting their benefits will be destroyed if the Government's plans to change the way benefits are paid come to fruition.

Stanley Bough of Heworth Post Office, who is backing our campaign. Mr Bough says he is "wary" of the Government's claims that people would still be able to get their benefits over the counter

Stanley Bough, 51, has run Heworth Post Office on East Parade, for 20 years and contacted the Evening Press to pledge his support to our Counter Attack campaign to fight proposals to pay benefits into bank accounts rather than over the counter at post offices.

Mr Bough said: "It will kill me. I'm basically a pensioners' office. "They make up something like 65 per cent of my trade."

He said that he was "wary" of the Government's claims that people would still be able to get their benefits over the counter.

"I don't know how that would happen. If we are going to be cashing cheques for the bank, we could not face the cut in payment."

Mr Bough said that in just a week, he had collected something like 1,100 signatures for his post office petition.

He painted a bleak picture of what would happen should the Government proposals force him out of business.

"My pensioners could not get any further than here. There is no way they could go into town to get their money."

He spoke of the importance to the whole community of keeping the post office open, particularly to local shops, which benefit from people picking up their money at the post office and spending it nearby.

"People come in here and you cannot help but see the shopping list. They collect their pension, then they buy their newspaper and do the rest of their shopping.

"I do not understand the Government's position on this. It baffles me."

Last weekend, Stephen Byers, the Government's Trade and Industry secretary, hinted that there might be subsidies for sub-post offices under threat.

But Mr Bough said he thought it was a "throwaway" comment.

He said: "I don't know what they are talking about. The finances of every post office are different. I could have a mortgage twice as high as a post office a mile down the road but will we both get the same subsidy?

"There is a dearth of facts from the Government concerning this whole situation."

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