AN elderly woman faces a four-hour trek to collect her pension after the closure of her local post office.

Although 71-year-old Janet Hogarth's nearest post office is now four miles away, it takes her four hours to travel there due to the infrequent bus service to her village.

She used to be able to collect the pensions for herself and her disabled brothers George, 84, and Arnold, 74, from the branch at Rookhope in Weardale, County Durham.

But now she has to catch the 11.30am bus to Stanhope, to collect the pension.

But that is not as simple as it sounds.

Miss Hogarth explained: "The Post Office closes for lunch so if there is a queue I cannot get sorted until afterwards, which means I miss the bus back at 12.15pm.

"I have to wait until the next bus which is the school bus at 3.15pm, getting me back into Rookhope at half past three, four hours after I left."

Villagers are now organising a petition urging post office bosses to provide a service in the village.

Local councillor John Shuttleworth said: "An elderly woman faces a four-hour trek to collect her pension after her local post office closed.

"Even though 71-year-old Janet Hogarth's nearest post office is four miles away, it takes her four hours to travel there due to the infrequent bus service to her village."

She used to be able to collect the pensions for herself and her disabled brothers George, 84, and Arnold, 74, from the branch at Rookhope in Weardale, County Durham.

But now she has to catch the 11.30am bus to Stanhope, County Durham, to collect the pension.

But that is not as simple as it sounds.

Miss Hogarth explained: "The Post Office closes for lunch so if there is a queue I cannot get sorted until afterwards, which means I miss the bus back at 12.15.

"I have to wait until the next bus which is the school bus at 3.15, getting me back into Rookhope at half past three, four hours after I left."

Villagers are now organising a petition urging post office bosses to provide a service in the village.

Local councillor John Shuttleworth said :"It is the elderly and disabled such as Janet and her brothers who are the worst affected by the loss of yet another rural service.

"People who make these decisions simply do not see the human cost.

"Janet looks after her two disabled brothers and life is hard enough without having to face a four-hour journey simply to collect their pensions."

A Post Office Ltd spokesman said: "Rookhope Post Office is to be replaced by an outreach post office service, following a six-week public consultation and as part of the final decisions reached under the Network Change programme in September last year.

"Our preferred outreach option would be a hosted service in suitable premises in the village, but unfortunately, we are not able to secure this.

"As a result, we also investigated providing a mobile post office service but this is not technically possible in Rookhope.

"We apologise for any break in service but we can assure our customers that we're committed to maintaining post office services in the village and we're now looking to provide a home service in the interim while we continue to investigate a permanent outreach solution."

But Coun Shuttleworth said: "The post office branch simply closed without anybody being notified.

"Nobody has been in touch since then and as usual we have been left high and dry.""People who make these decisions simply do not see the human cost.

"Janet looks after her two disabled brothers and life is hard enough without having to face a four-hour journey simply to collect their pensions."

A Post Office Ltd spokesman said: "Rookhope Post Office is to be replaced by an outreach post office service, following a six-week public consultation and as part of the final decisions reached under the Network Change programme in September last year.

"Our preferred outreach option would be a hosted service in suitable premises in the village, but unfortunately, we are not able to secure this.

"As a result, we also investigated providing a mobile post office service but this is not technically possible in Rookhope.

"We apologise for any break in service but we can assure our customers that we're committed to maintaining post office services in the village and we're now looking to provide a home service in the interim while we continue to investigate a permanent outreach solution."

But Coun Shuttleworth said: "The post office branch simply closed without anybody being notified.

"Nobody has been in touch since then and as usual we have been left high and dry."