A campaign has been launched to improve post office provision in Witham.

The number of post offices in the town was halved in January when the Rickstones Road and Wulvesford branches closed.

Now Witham Town Council has voted that the situation that remains, with the main post office based in McColls newsagents, is unacceptable.

The council is writing to Post Office bosses to ask why the town's main crown post office in Newland Street is still empty, nine years after it closed.

Speaking at a meeting of the town council on Wednesday, Bob Evans (Lab, North Ward) said: "The town is growing, the need for a proper post office, unlike the current provision, can only dismay people."

Prior to this year's closures, the Post Office said its 24 branches in the Braintree Parliamentary constituency were too many to be supported by the business available, and that the closures would ensure the economic viability of remaining branches.

The Post Office said 95 per cent of people in towns and cities still live within a mile of their nearest post office.

Published Friday, September 3, 2004

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