THE Post Office must avoid a repeat of the 'shambolic and disastrous' closure programme last year, says West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox.
His comments came in the wake of a meeting with executives responsible for the closure programme.
Mr Cox met Angela Van Den Bogerd, the national head of last year's 'Network Change Programme' and Tony Jones, Post Office's regional development manager.
They were invited to the constituency by Mr Cox, who raised issues concerning the implementation of the branch closures announced earlier this year, and to press for the promised outreach services to be delivered in full to rural communities.
Mr Cox, who intends to monitor the performance and sustainability of the new services, has received concerned letters and phone calls from residents of Shebbear about the repeated breakdown of the systems on board the mobile post office that is supposed to replace the village's post office branch, and about the number and quality of services it can provide.
He has also been in touch with postmasters, including Richard and Naomi Nardi in Bridestowe who are being asked to operate the 'partnered' service, in a contractual arrangement with a 'core' postmaster.
Concerns have been raised about the viability of these contracts in the long term.
Mr Cox said: 'I was glad to meet top-level representatives from the Post Office so that I could convey the great worry that people in our part of the world are experiencing regarding their postal services.
'Last year's branch closure programme was shambolic and disastrous, but the priority now is to ensure that what we have is sustainable and that both local post office users and the hard working postmasters are able to get what they need from them.
'I remain concerned that these new arrangements, without solid and sincere commitment from the Post Office, will not be sustainable.
'I have made it very clear that local people will expect that Post Office Ltd keep its promise to maintain the so called "outreach" Post Offices in the areas hit by the closures, and, for example, that the technical faults that have bedevilled the Mobile Post Office at Shebbear do not become a pattern.'