I HAVE read with great concern your full report regarding the closure of the Town Post Office's High Street site.

I suppose it is ironic in an area like this that Liz Lynne, our local MEP, and I have been organising petitions against the closure of rural post offices - with some moderate success in that the government seems now to have got at least part of the message - and now we find it is our town centre office which is to close.

They may call it "re-location", but it is just another example of service to clients being sacrificed for profit.

Staff - who will mostly be local people - are told they will be found jobs elsewhere. They had no prior warning or consultation, so the managers neither know nor really care what they think, or whether travelling to another town is even an option for most of them. The Co-op, whose roots are in promotion of a fair deal for working people, should be ashamed to even contemplate replacing already trained people whose dedication is respected by the thousands of people who visit the Post Office in the High Street every week.

The Post Office Network bosses have certainly had no thought for the interests of their customers or our town. Where was the consultation? We customers are treated with no respect.

Local Liberal Democrats strongly support all efforts to reverse this decision and will work with all other interested groups to keep our Post Office in the heart of the town.

I shall be speaking to Post Office Network, to the Co-op, and to staff and local residents, and can only hope that the adverse publicity may make them re-consider.

ROBERT BROWNE, The White Cottage, Broad Marston.