By Brian Allison

POST OFFICE users in Tayside and Fife will not find out until May which of their branches are earmarked for closure.

Post Office Ltd is planning to close 2500 of its branches across the United Kingdom.

A public consultation exercise for the north-east of Scotland, Tayside and Fife area is due to start in May and run for six weeks.

Under UK Government criteria, 95% of the population in rural areas have to be within three miles of the nearest branch and 95% of the people in each postcode district have to be within six miles.

In light of those figures concern has been expressed about the branches in Longforgan, Invergowrie and Inchture and there are fears one of them could be listed for closure.

No firm information has been released, however, about the rationalisation programme for the area.

A spokesman for Post Office Ltd said, “To make sure that the views of local people are heard there will be a six-week period of local public consultation before any final decision is taken on how the Government policy will be implemented in each area.” She said, “The area plan for the north east, Tayside and Fife—which includes Invergowrie, Longforgan and Inchture—is due to be announced in May.

“At the launch of the public consultation a full list of proposed changes to the Post Office network in the north east, Tayside and Fife will be published but, until then, it is impossible to speculate on the future of individual branches.”

The spokesman said the company would be meeting local authorities, MPs and other groups in the run-up to the consultation to help to formulate proposals, but no proposal lists would be finalised until the consultation began.

Perth and Kinross Provost John Hulbert, whose council ward includes the three branches, said he had not heard anything substantive—either personally or from residents—to indicate that Longforgan, Inchture or Invergowrie were at risk.

Given the distances between them, however, an educated guess could be made that there might be a threat to one of the three.

SNP party colleague Peter Mulheron said he was not aware of any proposals for the three branches but said the SNP were opposed to closures.