COMMUNITY and civic leaders have condemned Government plans to close two post offices in the Wellington area - at Bradford on Tone and West Buckland.

A third, at Churchinford, is to be replaced with a mobile facility operating just 13 hours a week.

Margaret Blogg, chairman of West Buckland parish council told the WWN: "West Buckland is a large village and the possible closure of the local post office would be a great loss to the community.

"In addition to the people who visit the post office to withdraw their pensions, allowances and savings, there are several small businesses in West Buckland who rely on the post office to mail items to customers."

She added: "The parish council hopes that common sense will prevail and our local post office will be spared from closure."

Bradford on Tone acting sub postmaster Eric Butler said: "This is not good news for the village.

"The closure will make it much more difficult for people to get pensions and benefits."

Now, Cllr Ross Henley, leader of Somerset County Council, who also sits on Wellington town council, has mounted a petition to save West Buckland and Churchinford.

He said: "The announcement is very bad news indeed for both the rural and urban areas of Taunton Deane.

"Rural communities could be hit badly by losing their Post Office altogether while Churchinford could see the number of hours reduced."

Jeremy Browne, MP for the Taunton constituency, which covers Wellington, has presented a petition to the House of Commons calling on the Government to save local post offices from closure.

He said: "It cannot be right to pick a national target for closures and then impose that on every community in the country.

"We have already lost dozens of post offices in our area over recent decades.

"Shutting one in five of the remaining post offices will have a very damaging effect on some local communities.

"The Government seems to be ignorant about the essential role that post offices have in many communities.

"They are particularly valued by vulnerable people who often live in isolation and without private transport."

The Post Office has targeted 30 offices for closure across Somerset as part of a bid to chop the national network by 2,500.

See today's Wellington Weekly News for more on this story.