Romsey residents' anger at post office closure threat

Those were the words of one Romsey woman when she was told that the town’s post office, in Church Street, is one of 115 post offices across the country that could be closed.

As previously reported, The Post Office revealed it is looking to offload 115 directly owned branches within its 11,500 network, which could see them transferred to retail partners or postmasters, or potentially closed.

Romsey and Portsmouth are the Hampshire branches affected.

Around 1,000 workers are employed across the branches, while the Post Office also confirmed that hundreds of further roles are under threat at its headquarters as it looks to streamline back-office operations.

Residents from Romsey and the surrounding area are upset by the news, with one woman, Laura Day, calling the plans "a nightmare".

READ MORE: Romsey Post Office at risk of closure putting jobs at risk

Laura Day called the proposal to close the post office a nightmare (Image: Chris Atkinson)She said: “I use it fairly regularly – it is convenient. What will people do? The next nearest post office would be where? It would be in one of the other villages. The closure would be a real problem for people.”

Other residents were equally infuriated by the plans. Jonathan Brazier said: “It will be devastating.

“In Romsey, we have a lot of elderly people and I am sure they use it for their pensions. It is a big building, but it will be terrible.”

Jonathan Braizer (Image: Chris Atkinson) Shirley Cansfield said: “We live in the town, so we always use it and it is very handy. Because, if anything is delivered and we have to collect it, it is vital. That’s all I can say.

“We have lived here for 50 years, we have always had a post office. I don’t know what is happening to the world now.”

Edward Drohan said: “The post office is heavily used, there are frequent queues to get in there.

“It will be an amazing inconvenience to a lot of people. People in Romsey are happy they have a physical post office they can go into. The elderly would be inconvenienced by it closing.”

Shirley Cansfield (Image: Chris Atkinson) The Communication Workers Union (CWU) union has called on the Post Office to halt the plans and for the Government to intervene.

The Post Office has insisted that it aims are to franchise the branches or transfer ownership to other parties, such as its network of retail partners. Retailers such as WH Smith, Tesco, Morrisons and the Co-Op operate around 2,000 Post Offices across the country.

Post Office chairman Nigel Railton said the shake-up will also offer a “new deal for postmasters” by increasing their share of revenue and giving them a greater say in the running of the business.

This comes as it looks to move on from the Horizon IT scandal that saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongfully convicted.

A spokesman for the Post Office said: “The plan intends to create a new operating model for the business that means ensuring the Post Office has the right organisational design.”