A TOWN’S leaders have backed a campaign to prevent a post office building from closing and the service being relocated.

Stockton Borough Council backed a motion at a full council meeting, calling on the Post Office not to hire out or sell its Crown, or Central, branch on Stockton High Street.

However, Conservative group leader councillor Ken Lupton said the Labour group was guilty of “scare-mongering” and the overall service would be maintained.

Stockton’s Crown post office is one of 70 chosen across the country for “business transformation.”

The idea is to move out of the main building and work with a retailer and move in to a shop.

In Middlesbrough the main post office building has already closed as a post office and the service is conducted in the basement of WH Smiths.

At the meeting in Stockton Town Hall  coun Michael Clark said the move would be a blow at a time when serious efforts were being made to regenerate the High Street and submitted the motion.

Leader of the authority, Bob Cook, said experience elsewhere showed the idea of franchising the service often worked well at first but then deteriorated. If anything, a bigger crown post office was needed.

However, Coun Lupton said James Wharton, Conservative MP for Stockton South, had met with leading post office managers and been assured services would not be affected.

He said: “This is transparently political…it’s only scare-mongering.”

Peter Hall, Cleveland representative for the Communication Workers Union said 20 people worked at the post office and even if their jobs were saved they would have worse pay and conditions in retailer franchise.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “This is not a closure programme and there are no compulsory redundancies planned as part of this strategy.”

Coun Clark's motion to support the campaign to protect the post office was passed by 38 votes to eight.