Residents of a Fife community say the closure of their post office will be horrific for the town.
Anstruther Post Office will shut up shop on July 28 when the postmistress retires.
It will be the 10th Fife branch to close in under a year.
And residents face a 19-mile round trip to the nearest main post office unless someone steps in to run the service.
The closure follows the loss of the town’s last bank and the only town centre cash machine.
And there are fears business people and the elderly will be hugely affected by a further erosion in local services.
Community council secretary Daryl Wilson said: “It’s absolutely terrible for old people who need to get their pensions.
“And a lot of the businesses around here, particularly the fish businesses who run vans, work in cash.
“There’s a lot of business banking done in Anstruther Post Office.
“It’s going to be horrific.”
Anstruther Post Office is up for sale
Daryl said the East Neuk had been disproportionately hit by closures and cuts.
“We have no banks, then they took away the cash machine from the post office a few months ago.
“Businesses were appeased because they could get cash inside the post office.
“Now there will be nothing.”
While there are post offices in other nearby villages, they are described as local post offices and do not provide the same range of services.
“You can only bank up to £2,000 at a local post office, which isn’t good for our businesses,” said Daryl.
“The nearest main post office is in St Andrews.”
The post office on Shore Street has been up for sale for a while and there is a closing date of September 22.
“The couple who run Anstruther Post Office have given a great service to the town for 18 years but now they want to retire,” said Daryl.
“They know how important the service is to the community and they’re devastated they can’t get it sold.”
Nine other closures in Fife
Eight other post offices have closed in Fife over the last year.
They are St Andrews Tom Morris Drive, Newport, Ladybank, Balmullo, East Wemyss, Thornton, Burntisland and Wormit.
Leuchars will become the ninth when it shuts at the end of June.
The Post Office says it is facing a particular challenge in Fife.
A spokesperson said: “We want to assure residents and businesses that we are continuing to prioritise identifying and securing appropriate replacement sites for branches that have closed.”
It is already in the early stages of bringing in a new postmaster to run Burntisland.
And temporary outreach services have launched in some of the other affected communities.
However, a permanent solution has yet to be found.
North east Fife Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said urgent action was required.
He said: “Another month, another post office under threat.
“The Post Office and the Conservative Government must recognise that the current turmoil in the post office network is not sustainable.
“We need urgent action from both to secure this service for the large population of Anstruther and Cellardyke.”
The UK Government says it is committed to maintaining the post office network at its current level.
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