But here the hotline stays silent,,,

 

The last of the 2,500 post offices being closed as part of the Network Change Programme will shut its doors for ever in the New Year.

Saddened: Betty Pritchardand husband Ray.

The Wilkin post office, in the suburbs of Brownhills in the West Midlands, ends its six-week consultation period on Monday, December 22, and will close just a few weeks later.

Down the road stands the 30ft Brownhills Miner statue marking the gateway to the Black Country and a tribute to the area's mining heritage.

The pretty post office is a small converted Edwardian terrace house with a hand-painted red sign. Inside, the sub-postmistress and her husband, who runs the attached store, have decorated the small shop and post office window with dozens of cactus plants.

But the popular couple, after more than two decades of serving customers, are accepting the inevitable. They did not wish to talk to Financial Mail, but their customers were more forthcoming.

Betty Pritchard, 76, has been visiting the branch since she was a child, as her parents did before her, and is deeply saddened by its imminent demise. 'This is a fabulous traditional branch right at the heart of our community and its loss will be a great blow to us all,' she says.

Betty has repeatedly tried to phone a hotline advertised on the branch door as part of the socalled consultation on its future. She says no one ever answers, perhaps unsurprisingly as the Post Office recently made it harder to get information on the closures.

Gillian Zwolinski, a 69-year-old widow, says: 'I am unable to drive and I will feel lost. Post Office bosses have no idea what life is like for the elderly. We are being abandoned.'

Despite the number of pensioners who live in the area, the Post Office has no plans to introduce a replacement outreach service as it has for other vulnerable areas.

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Retired engineer Donald Darby, 76, who was posting Christmas cards, says: 'This closure is shortsighted. It's taking away a community hub and a lot more than a branch, it is also a bank, grocery store and social service. Once closed, it will not return.'