CAMPAIGNERS trying to save post offices in some of the most isolated parts of the region have accused the Royal Mail of operating a “closure by stealth” programme.

At least ten post offices in villages across the Upper Dales, in North Yorkshire, have closed in the past decade, leaving people with patchy outreach services or a long journey to access a post office counter.

Now members of Bainbridge and Askrigg and Low Abbotside parish councils have joined forces in an attempt to prevent any more postal services being lost.

In the past 12 years post offices in Bainbridge, Askrigg, West Burton, Aysgarth, Carperby, Langthwaite, Healaugh, Low Row, Gunnerside and Muker have been closed.

Most of the villages have outreach services, although they are often limited to a few hours a week.

The post office in Middleham, which also runs services in Bellerby, Kirklington, Newton- le-Willows and Snape, is due to close at the end of the month following the retirement of the postmistress.

The campaign to save the post office service in the Upper Dales is being co-ordinated by Kate Empsall, former clerk to the Low Abbotside parish council, who has contacted Richmond MP William Hague and the chief executive of North Yorkshire County Council, Richard Flinton.

Ms Empsall said: “We are concerned that soon we may have no post office services between Leyburn and Hawes – a distance of 17 miles.

“This is completely unacceptable.

No wonder the Post Office is struggling if they do not provide outlets. Not everyone one can easily travel these sorts of distances, which costs time and money.

Not everyone has access to the internet, or wishes to use it.”

County Councillor John Blackie, who represents the Upper Dales, said: “The lack of a strategic game plan by the Post Office to deal with this inevitable churn, and its deliberate policy of being difficult to engage with when problems arise, is simply closure by stealth operated skilfully and knowingly by an organisation that should have local communities at its very heart.”

In a statement, Wendy Gess, on behalf of Post Office Ltd, said: “Our aim is for the size of the overall network to be stable and to continue to meet the Government’s minimum access criteria, which include ensuring that 95 per cent of the total rural population across the UK are within three miles of their nearest post office branch.

“We know that with any post office closure, it is always very difficult for our customers and for the communities affected.

“Where a branch closes due to the resignation or retirement of the subpostmaster, we will do all that we can to fill the vacancy and restore post office services to the area as soon as possible.”

The matter will be raised at the next meeting of the Richmondshire Area Committee on Wednesday, at 10am, at the Middleham Key Centre. It will also be discussed at the first meeting of the Richmondshire District Council Upper Dales Area Partnership, in Carperby on Monday, at 7.15pm.