TOMORROW is D-Day for campaigners who have fought to save post offices under threat of closure.
The sites awaiting their future in Hartlepool are Raby Estate Post Office, in Chatham Road, in the Dyke House area of town, Elwick Road Post Office, in Elwick Road and Hart Post Office, in Hart village.
The proposed closures are part of the restru
cturing of the postal network, which will see 2,500 offices close nationwide, in a bid to cut losses which topped £200m last year.
But more than 5,000 people have hit out at the proposals by joining the Mail's Protect Your Post Office petition to save the three under-fire offices in Hartlepool.
The proposed closures in Hartlepool come under the area plan for Cleveland, South Durham and Richmond.
Hutton Henry Post Office, in Front Street, Hutton Henry, is another earmarked for closure.
The six-week public consultation period into the proposed closures ended in April, and the consultation team have been sifting through all representations made by campaigners.
Two post offices in Billingham, the Cowpen Estate, in Cowpen Lane, and Wolviston Court, in Clifton Avenue, are also on the proposed closure list.
Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond said he is eager to hear the final decision: "At least by tomorrow we will have a clearer idea of where we stand and then we can look at what to do next," he said.
If the decision is made to close a post office it will be forced to shut down at the end of June and into early July as there is no appeal process available.
If the consultation team decide to save some of the threatened sites then they may decide to close others in the same area plan.
If that is the case then those post offices affected will be subject to a six-week consultation period.
Adrian Wales, the Post Office's network development manager, makes the final decision.
Mr Wales, along with his team, have been reading all of the representations made by the public.
The full article contains 344 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
