Anger at Landport post office closure

1.55.18pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 8th Apr 2008

Thousands of people campaigned with Landport councillor David Gray to save the post office, but the government's closure targets have forced the branch to close.

Local Lib Dems are livid after the Post Office announced that the Landport branch will close. Lib Dem-run Lewes District had offered to waive the rent and rates on the branch as the landlord, but the government's plans to close 2,500 branches across the country saw this offer ignored.

Lewes District Council leader Ann De Vecchi says: "The Post Office would not release financial information to us showing how the Landport branch was performing. This has been shabby treatment of the local council and the people of Landport. It is clear that the government set the closure target and the consultation was little more than a sham."

Ann continues: "The District Council are still waiting to meet with the minister responsible for this decision. This will be a last-ditch attempt to rescue the branch from closure. Otherwise people in Landport will be left without this vital facility."

Landport councillor David Gray says: "We made it very clear to the Post Office consultation team how difficult it would be for disabled and elderly people to get to the main branch in the centre of Lewes, but they clearly had their minds made up by the government's closure targets. This news is very sad."