POSTMASTERS throughout West Devon and East Cornwall are keeping their fingers crossed while they wait to see if their offices will be among those earmarked for closure, following the announcement of Government plans to axe 2,500 post offices. Many post offices located in rural areas will be under particular threat and closures in Devon and Cornwall may be around 100. Trade and industry secretary Alastair Darling last week claimed replacing many existing post office outlets with a part-time service using mobile vans, pubs or churches, though reducing the size of the national network, will in fact help to preserve it. Ravi Jhangiani, who runs the post office in Abbey Place, Tavistock, backed the recent 'Heart of the Community' campaign which collected more than three million signatures nationally to lobby the Government to keep post offices open. Mr Jhangiani, president of the Plymouth North and East Cornwall branch of the National Federation of Sub Postmasters, said: 'It is early days for a full reaction. We are convinced that the minds of Government were changed slightly by the campaign that we organised.' His federation conducted a survey outside local post offices, including one in Mary Tavy. He said 99 per cent of people said they wanted to keep their local service. Closures of branches, at a date yet to be announced, will start next summer and be spread over an 18-month period. Bill Blowey, who runs Horrabridge Post Office, told the Times: 'It's going to be a while before we know the changes. It's all in the air at the moment.' But Okehampton postmaster Allenton Fisher has broadly welcomed the Government's announcement, which he said should ensure the continuation of satellite facilities in surrounding villages. Mr Fisher said while post offices in Devon would have to wait to see if they were earmarked for closure, his initial impression from the Government's announcement was that the picture locally was not as bad as had been feared. He welcomed the Government's decision that the annual £150-million subsidy to help rural offices stay open would be extended until at least 2011, with an expectation that continuing financial help will be needed. 'As far as I am concerned, that should mean Belstone, Sticklepath and Exbourne, which we operate as satellite services, will continue,' he said. He said the forecast that around 2,500 post offices would have to close to streamline the network was probably 'the best that could be hoped for', given changes in the way people communicated. Mr Fisher said: 'I accept that people are going to use the internet to do things they previously did in the post office. To be fair, we need to change and that is why we have revamped the post office in Okehampton to make it a more attractive place to visit.' Okehampton and other local post offices supported a campaign earlier this autumn to keep the Post Office Card Account, which was under threat of being phased out by the Government. The Card Account is a scheme that allows people without a bank account to access pensions and benefits. Its axing would have resulted in a major reduction in the number of transactions carried out in post offices. Mr Fisher said: 'The Post Office Card Account is going to be kept, albeit in a different format, as I understand it. It is quite a nice way to get money out and I am sure our customers who currently use the account will be pleased it is safe.'
