WE are losing our community hubs. The places that brought people together are being taken away, leaving a hole behind.

Take the Post Office in Dines Green, for example, which has been closed for almost a year now. That place was more than just a Post Office for many of its customers – it was a social hub where they could go to have a chat with familiar faces. Without it, they are more isolated than before.

That’s the point: when we lose a post office, pub or day centre, we don’t just lose the service they offered, we lose the sense of community they provided.

In a society where more and more of our communication is carried our remotely, via the internet, there is a growing problem of loneliness.

People who would once have a chat with the staff at the Post Office, bank and pub, now have far fewer friendly faces to socialise with during their day.

That’s why we have to fight to keep our post office and bank branches, and ours pubs, libraries and day centres – without them, we lose our community.