Anger over post consultation plan

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Royal Mail has been accused of "making a mockery" of its own consultation process after it announced replacement details for a village Post Office.

The company launched a six-week consultation in August over the future of Fintry Post Office in Stirlingshire.

However, Stirling SNP MSP Bruce Crawford said Royal Mail had already decided that a mobile service would take over from the village Post Office.

Royal Mail said the move provided the best option for Fintry.

Mr Crawford said locals in the nearby villages of Buchlyvie, Gargunnock and Thornhill were still reeling from the closure of their branches last year.

Since then villagers have used a mobile service which visits each community at set times of the week.

People are perfectly entitled to ask what the point is of participating when it is clear that decisions have already been made
Bruce Crawford SNP MSP

A consultation on the future of services for Fintry is due to end on 29 September.

However, Royal Mail have said Fintry will be added to its mobile service schedule by reducing the amount of time it spends in Gargunnock and Thornhill.

Mr Crawford said: "After the huge controversy locally when the Post Office closed rural Post Offices in Buchlyvie, Gargunnock and Thornhill, it beggars belief that they now intend to cut provision on the mobile service they brought in to replace the Post Offices that were closed.

"These service reductions are being implemented by the Post Office in advance of the end of the consultation period for proposed changes to Fintry's Post Office provision, making a mockery of the whole process.

"People are perfectly entitled to ask what the point is of participating when it is clear that decisions have already been made."

'Protect services'

In response, a spokeswoman for Royal Mail said that Fintry Post Office closed on 12 August following the resignation of the subpostmaster and that since then no suitable premises had been found to support a new service.

She added: "A mobile post office would allow us to continue service to customers in Fintry.

"To accommodate this service, we have looked at reducing the hours at the other villages by an hour a week - Gargunnock by an hour on Friday morning, Thornhill by an hour Thursday afternoons.

"We have carried out research which shows at these times no-one uses the mobile post office.

"The mobile also serves Buchlyvie and we are proposing this mobile to protect services in villages where usage to the post office was and is low."