10:19am Friday 18th July 2008
THE post office in Dean Street car park in Marlow is secure for the immediate future as the lease on the land has been extended until March next year.
The announcement comes as the future of 11 other offices across south Buckinghamshire hang in the balance.
The Government has told Post Office Ltd to axe nearly 2,500 offices nationwide because of the large financial losses the offices are making.
Though the Dean Street post office was not one of those earmarked for closure, the land on which it is sited had only been leased from Wycombe District Council (WDC) until November, after which its future was uncertain.
Now the council has agreed to extend the lease until March 31, 2009.
Plans to close post offices in other areas across south Buckinghamshire have been met with dismay by residents and councillors alike.
On Tuesday evening councillors and officials from the Post Office met at WDC in Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe, to discuss the plans.
Gary Herbert, from Post Office Ltd, said that if closures are not made, the entire network could go under.
This, he said, was due to the huge losses that post offices are making.
He said: If we don't do something with what we've got, the network will dwindle and die on the vine.'' One councillor said that he believed post offices were in fact a public service, and that it was wrong to expect them to make money.
If you followed the same argument,'' he said, all the libraries would be closed''.
A public consultation on the proposed closures will be held until July 28.
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