4:00pm Friday 4th July 2008
By Timothy John
A POST office in Blandford will close before a public consultation on the future of the service has finished, it has been claimed.
District councillor John Tanner said that workers in the town's One Stop convenience store have been told that the post office within the store will close at the end of August.
A six-week public consultation on the future of Dorset's rural post offices is due to start in two weeks, ending on September 1.
Shop fitters had arrived at the Salisbury Road store last week, said Cllr Tanner, telling staff they were measuring space in the post office for freezer units.
Worried workers were told by One Stop management that the post office would close at the end of August, said the Blandford Station member.
Cllr Tanner visited the post office on behalf of North Dorset District Council on Monday.
"If you're going to keep open one post office in Blandford, you would have it on Salisbury Road," said Cllr Tanner.
"It's at the heart of the town's industrial and commercial district, with hundreds of new houses due to be built by Persimmon Homes," he added.
The claim comes as the Post Office prepares to write to the county's "major stakeholders" on July 15, outlining a closure programme agreed with the government.
Dorset people are being invited to follow the six-week consultation through the Post Office website and the local press.
A spokesman for One Stop said the closure programme was being led by the Post Office and that the store would assess the implications of any announcements made.
"We are keeping our staff fully informed of developments as they happen," the spokesman said.
A statement from the Post Office said that a list of closures for the county had not yet been finalised, and that speculation on any branch was "unhelpful".
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