Slindon post office targeted for closure

The warning was given by parish council clerk Bonny Beere after it was announced the village post office was set to close.

The decision was revealed by the government on Tuesday. It will be subject to a six week consultation.

The post office was the only one in the western part of the Arundel and South Downs area to be earmarked for the axe.

Slindon Post Office has been open three mornings a week for several years. Its hours have gradually been reduced by the postmistress.

Mrs Beere said: "This announcement is bad news for us. Our nearest post office will be at Walberton.

"That's only about a mile away as the crow flies but, in reality, it involves a journey along the A27 and the A29.

"It will be very hairy for anyone to do that and I don't think they will."

She said the loss of Slindon's post office, in Top Road, would be a sign of the worsening isolation suffered by the village of 435 electors with the closure of their last shop. The parish council was likely to discuss the matter at a special session arranged around next month's budget setting meeting, she stated.

She expected councillors to concentrate their efforts on trying to get a substitute outreach service to at least partly compensate for the loss of the post office. The parish council had already joined with some residents to start Slindon Life as a pressure group.

Its first aim was to acquire premises to enable a shop and a tea rooms to open, she added.

Arundel and South Downs MP Nick Herbert said he fully supported attempts to keep the business open. "Rural post offices provide an important public service and they are a focal point of village life.

"Many people in our rural communities, especially young mothers and the elderly, do not have access to their own transport," he stated.

"It is vital that services remain local and accessible."

The closure of Slindon was among 49 across West Sussex announced by the government.

The cutbacks are necessary, the government claims, because the number of customers has fallen and the cost of running the network has risen.

Details of any post office closures around Bognor Regis will be announced in January.