Closing post office is wrong

LETTER - Closing Worthen Post Office is the wrong business decision and the remaining solution is - there can be no doubt - a route removing the service altogether from the village, which will have a profound effect on the social and economic life of the village, which it's clear Post Office has not studied.

Co-locating businesses is an accepted form of sharing fixed costs, maintaining footfall and maximising the revenues by sharing the customers.

Indeed Post Office Ltd has utilised this very strategy in Shrewsbury by locating themselves in WH Smith - but the solution is not considered for Worthen.

The proposal to split up and provide an outreach service will be to the detriment to Post Office in Worthen.

Reducing the hours of business and having them at different times across the week, with total removal of the service for two business days of the week, the post office in Worthen can't help but reduce them. And so the 11 hours proposed will not be sustained.

This is common business sense.

The fact is that the two businesses - village shop and post office - split will put both at risk and the post office will be affected the most because of the location, accessibility and visibility of the proposed alternative.

Based on the above I submit that the proposal to close Worthen Post Office by Post Office Ltd does not fulfil either the Post Office Ltd's own criteria or those given to them by Her Majesty's Government.

Make no mistake about it, Worthen Post Office should stay open.

Jon Newson, Worthen