A woman who is in ill health has expressed her concern after receiving confirmation that Saltash’s main post office branch is to close, at a time when the town has also lost nearly all its banks.

Mary Pester, aged 67, of Saltash has been told by staff in the main post office in Saltash, at 36-38 Fore Street, that the branch is closing and staff have been given notice.

There is now only one bank branch left in the town, Lloyds Bank, and although the banking chain has confirmed that there are no plans to close that branch, some branch hours are currently reduced due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Mary says elderly people tend to rely on the post office to pay bills and draw their pension.

She says that she is not in good health and elderly people feel vulnerable using ATM machines to get their cash, especially with the nights drawing in.

She also points out that many elderly people don’t do online banking for one reason or another – Mary used to use internet banking but her account was hacked once so she stopped.

There is another post office counter in the small Mote Park Spar shop in the Burraton area at the top of the town but the shop is very small and Mary says she was once stuck in a queue there for a considerable period of time.

She says it is really awful the main post office is closing because so many elderly and disabled people rely upon it.

She says they will find it difficult and inconvenient to reach the suggested alternative in Plymouth.

Also with the whole branch building closing, there are people who will lose their jobs both in the post office and the McColl’s shop on the site.

In the last few days, Mary says that she has received a letter from South East Cornwall MP Sheryll Murray in which she says she has already spoken to the Post Office.

The MP also enclosed a copy of a redacted letter confirming that “yes, it’s going to close on the 17th of January and the local area manager has spoken to retailers, but they are not interested in putting a post office in their store”.

The MP’s letter also says the post office is being advertised as a business opportunity on the Post Office website.

Mary says she has not seen that herself but she knows that a chemist shop is also closing in the town so that premises would be ideal for a post office due to its accessibility and proximity to bus stops.

She adds that the town’s former Barclays Bank building is lying empty and has all the counters and vaults that a post office might need.

Mary says: “I believe that if the post office even intended to maintain a presence in Saltash, it would have looked harder and advertised more widely. Very soon we will have nothing but ATM machines, and muggings of elderly people will go through the roof. That’s if, and it’s a big if, the ATM is working and, as an afterthought, free.”

She has also spoken to retailers, some of whom say they would be reluctant to have a post office counter in their stores.

However, the management of the Speedy Prints shop in Wesley Road, occupying the building used as the main post office before its move to Fore Street, and which some customers still enter thinking that it is still the post office, told Mary that they had received no approach about possibly having a postal counter in their store.

The Cornish Times contacted Mayor of Saltash Pete Samuels regarding the main post office closure and he said that the town council had heard rumours that the Fore Street branch might be closing but, despite contacting the Post Office, they had been left in the dark and had yet to receive a reply on the matter. He added: “We have got to do all that we can to ensure a post office presence in the town, and the town council will do all that it can to help.”

A Post Office spokesperson said: “The operator for Saltash Post Offices has resigned with effect from January 17, 2021. McColl’s, which operates this branch, has made the difficult decision to close this shop. We understand how important a Post Office is to a community and we will continue to work to try to find a solution that will provide a Post Office service to the community in this area.

“The vacancy is advertised on www.runapostoffice.co.uk and our field team has visited retailers in the area to raise awareness about the opportunity.

“Anyone interested in operating this branch should email ND.enquiries@

postoffice.co.uk or 0333 345 5560, then select option 2.”