GUISBOROUGH’S sole post office in Westgate has announced that it is to close for refurbishment after business on Tuesday, February 17, and the new look post office will reopen for business on Tuesday, March 3, at 1pm.

This will leave Guisborough without the services of a post office for two weeks and already concern is growing for those who use the post office regularly and do not have the means or ability to go elsewhere.

While the refurbishment is taking place, Post Office Ltd has arranged for a free limited bus service to operate from the Guisborough post office to the one at Saltburn. The bus will run twice a day in both directions, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, except on Saturdays and Sundays.

However, many elderly people without access to a motor vehicle use the services of the post office and have expressed concern over the arrangement.

Barbara Storr, of Guisborough, said: “It’s going to affect me very much so because I don’t go anywhere else for what I need. I live in Guisborough. I don’t need to go out of the town. I don’t go on a bus because I have rheumatoid arthritis. I’ve had two new hips, a new knee and a bladder operation, so that’s why I struggle. I used to be a Marie Curie nurse looking after other people but I’m struggling now.”

Husband Ray said: “If they shut this place for half an hour at lunchtime, the queue forms long before they get started again. It’s extremely busy.”

Michael Morris, also of Guisborough, said: “I’m down here every day. I’ve got a car so I can go to Boosbeck but I’d be lost without this place.”

The town’s MP, Tom Blenkinsop, has now intervened and spoken to Post Office Ltd about providing alternative facilities.

He said: “The Post Office response has been to say that people can go to other nearby offices such as Brotton or Redcar. We don’t think that that is a tenable or suitable solution so I’ve asked the Post Office to put in a temporary cabin of some form on the same site, so people have got access to a local post office in the interim until the refurbishments are made.

"I’ve had similar negotiations with the Post Office over consultations to move Brotton’s post office and on Penrith Road at Park End so it’s quite a number of these changes, which have been forced through, so all we are looking for is a bit of common sense for the Post Office, just to meet us halfway with a temporary two-week solution.

"I’m not wholly convinced that this bus service will meet the needs of local users. Most people come at different times of the day. It still doesn’t meet the needs of the people who walk or drive to the post office.

"I think a temporary cabin is far more tenable and the Post Office should look at that.”

Susan Edgar, manageress of the post office, said: “I have been talking to Post Office Ltd about a cabin and they say no and this is the best option they can give us. People don’t have to go on the free bus that is being provided. They can go to any post office but that’d the best option that they have come up with.

"It has to be done, we have to close, there’s no way round it and both myself and Post Office Ltd are investing a lot of money to do this update. It’s just unfortunate.”