Oaktree Road post office is one of a list of Hampshire branches which will close next month.Branches at 498 Portswood Road and at Lodge Road in Portswood are also on the closure list. There was widespread opposition to the idea of closure locally, and Southampton Itchen Labour MP John Denham has described the confirmation by the Post Office that the branch is to close as “disappointing.”
Mr Denham said “I, together with many local residents, wrote to the Post Office during the consultation period pointing out that the proposed closure would leave almost the whole of the Bitterne Park ward without a Post Office following the earlier closure of the post office at Bitterne Park Triangle. The alternative, Midanbury in Witts Hill, stands at the top of one of the steepest hills in Southampton. Although there is a bus service there is no guarantee that buses on the route will be accessible to people with walking difficulties. This decision is very disappointing.”
In a leaflet published during the consultation period, the sub-postmaster at Oaktree said that a Paypoint would be installed in the shop if the post office did go, for payment of utility bills. Stamps would continue to be sold and a toll free cash machine was going to be installed before Christmas.
Oaktree Post Office will close on February 12.
Read the BBC Hampshire story here
