THE Post Office has been accused of a dirty trick in reducing the hours of its counter service at Leeming Village.

Upset residents claimed this week that Post Office Counters had not told them about the cuts, which took effect as the combined post office and shop were taken over on Thursday last week by Mr Steve Lawton and his wife, Maria, from Finningley, near Doncaster.

Villagers have launched a petition against the changes, under which the former full-time office has become a community office and has had its hours cut from 36 to 28 a week, with two additional afternoon closures.

New opening hours are from 9am to 5pm on Mondays and Tuesdays and from 9am to 1pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The office is now closed all day on Saturdays.

The premises were on the market for some time and were originally advertised for sale as having a full-time post office but it is understood that, after monitoring the amount of business, Post Office Counters concluded that this status was not justified.

It is understood that Mr and Mrs Lawton had to decide whether to go ahead with the move even though reduced hours would mean a drop in Post Office salary.

Local people pointed out, however, that Leeming was a growing village again now that a number of once-empty RAF houses were filling up after being placed on the open market.

Mrs Joan Thompson said: "Elderly people don't always get going in the morning and go to the post office after lunch. As far as I know no one in the village was ever consulted or warned that these changes were being made.

"I think it was a bit low to do this when new people were coming in and without anyone in the village being told. It was a dirty trick."

Mrs Joyce Light, who ran the post office and shop 30 years ago and has signed the petition, said: "I think it's absolutely atrocious.

"There are a lot of elderly people in Leeming who have no cars and the bus service is practically non-existent."

A spokesman for Post Office Counters said: "We constantly review the level of business an office is doing, and if we decide to reduce the hours of an office that can also help us to protect and maintain the network of 18,000 post offices nationwide.

"However, we are flexible. Should the business in a post office grow, then we would review the opening hours of that office."