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D-Day looms for under-threat POs
UNDER-THREAT post offices across the county could be fewer than seven days away from learning their fate.
This week Post Office Ltd said it expected to make an announcement within days and postmasters said they believed next Tuesday would be decision day.
The confirmation of branch closures will end three months of uncertainty at the 22 Oxfordshire post offices facing the axe.
Between February 5 and March 17, a public consultation on the future of these facilities saw widespread community action to keep them running.
But, in the six weeks since the end of the consultation period, Post Office Ltd has kept tight-lipped and left postmasters wondering when, or if, the axe might fall on their businesses.
Dharmaraj Prasad, the postmaster at Grandpont Post Office, Oxford, said: "We are still waiting and nobody has told us anything. We have not had a clue and not heard anything about it. It seems we are being kept in the dark.
"Every single one of my customers is asking me what is going to happen, but I have to tell them I am sorry I have been told to wait to find out what happens.
"We have had a lot inquiries and everybody is uncertain. I am just hoping for good news."
Mr Prasad, who has been Grandpont's postmaster for more than 20 years, said the wait for an announcement had not unduly affected business.
He said: "It is too late for the Post Office to count them, but we have had quite a few people start to come here saying they are fed up with waiting at the main post office in St Aldate's."
Mollie Ingrey, who runs Stanton St John Store and Post Office, said: "We have heard nothing, they are keeping it very quiet. In their initial letter, the Post Office said we would be told on Tuesday, May 6, but I do not know if that will be through an e-mail, a phone call or a letter. We are just waiting with bated breath."
Two postmasters at closure-threatened branches in Oxfordshire, who did not wish to be named, told The Herald they thought any announcement had been delayed until after the local elections.
Post Office spokeswoman Jaquie Stenson said: "We are hoping to make an announcement in the next week or so."
When asked whether postmasters would be informed before the media, she said: "We talk to our people first."
Last month, Post Office Ltd said branches would be given at least four weeks' notice to wind down their facilities after the announcement.
1:45pm Wednesday 30th April 2008
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