HIGH streets are continuing to feel the ever-increasing creep of closures across a range of services, and this week Northallerton's Post Office is taking the hit.

It has been proposed that the busy Post Office, which regularly has queues approaching the door, relocates to the WH Smith store in the centre of the town's High Street, amid further cuts to the service.

Residents and councillors will be sure to put up a fight to save the office in its historic building at the south end of the town, and have already listed a litany of reasons why the proposed move is a terrible idea.

The WH Smith shop is dark and cramped – to add a Post Office counter would surely mean its small aisles will be even more difficult to navigate.

Not to mention the struggle those with pushchairs or in wheelchairs would face in their quest to send a parcel or pay the bills.

The potential closure is yet another attack on community services across North Yorkshire's market towns, including banks and bus services – and Northallerton has weathered numerous cuts at the Friarage Hospital and will soon lose its Magistrates' Court.

The town is now recovering after the job losses which came following the closure of the prison and Rural Payments Agency offices; the former now being redeveloped as a retail, business and leisure park, and the latter now North Yorkshire Police HQ.

But the community will keenly feel a downgrade in services at its Post Office, and both Northallerton Mayor John Forrest and MP Rishi Sunak have voiced their concerns at the impact it will have, particularly on the elderly and those with mobility issues.