Anger at lack of Post Office closure notice (From Wharfedale Observer)

Anger at lack of Post Office closure notice

9:37am Thursday 6th September 2012 in Local news By Jim Jack

Angry residents have slammed the Post Office for leaving Otley without any service on Tuesday.

The town’s only remaining branch, in Nelson Street was closed all day, with notices up advising customers to use their ‘nearest alternative’ by travelling to Pool-in-Wharfedale or Guiseley.

Post Office Ltd has now apologised for the closure, saying it was due to a new subpostmaster taking over, but claims customers had been warned in advance by notices at the branch.

However, Otley resident, Sue Grahamslaw, of Riverdale Gardens, said for many people the first they knew about it was when they turned up on Tuesday only to see a note on the door.

She added: “I’m extremely unhappy because they’ve closed all the other post offices here and they haven’t made any alternative provision for closing this one, which is always busy.

“When I first went along, at about 9.40am, there was a notice saying it was closed for stock-taking and would reopen at 1pm.

“But when I returned, the earlier notice had been removed and another was up saying the branch was closed due to a change of subpostmaster, and that the nearest alternative was in Pool or Guiseley.

“I rang up the customer care number and they knew nothing about it. I said to them ‘you’ve already closed all the other post offices in Otley so this one serves 16,000 people, are you really telling me you’ve no idea why it’s closed?’. They just said ‘no’, which is unbelievable.”

St David’s Road resident, Vic Heffer, said: “Frankly, this was ridiculous. If they had a new postmaster and had to take stock, they should have done it on a Sunday so it didn’t inconvenience anyone.

“The post office should apologise but they should also reopen one of the old post offices that they closed so this can’t happen again.

“Some of the old people who use Nelson Street are frail but have to queue for ages because it’s always busy, having taken a bus to get there. For them to turn up on Tuesday only to find a notice saying ‘closed’ is unacceptable.”

A Post Office Ltd spokeswoman said: “We apologise for the inconvenience while the new subpostmaster was installed at Otley Post Office. Customers were informed in advance and were advised of nearby branches.”