Hard battle to stop post office closures: Hay

The mooted closures of both the Ebrington and Irish Street branches of the Post Office last week led Mr Hay and his council colleague Alderman Joe Miller to meet with representatives from the organisation.

However, Mr Hay has told the Sentinel that he feels Post Office representatives attended the meeting at the local DUP offices "with their minds already made up", that the Waterside branches are to shut.

"I feel that the consultation process is only an exersise, a paper exercise.

"The Post Office are looking to centralise their locations across Northern Ireland," said Mr Hay.

But, whilst the DUP man admitted that the fight to save both Ebrington and Irish Street Post Office's will be a hard one, he said that he will "not give up without a fight."

Stating that the meeting between the DUP and Post Office officials saw very "frank exchanges of views", Mr Hay said the DUP in Londonderry will take the fight to a higher level within Royal Mail if necessary.

In response to Mr Hay's comments, a spokesperson for the Post Office told the Sentinel: "Post Office Ltd would like to hear comments from customers on the proposed closure of Lisnagelvin Post Office branch.

"No decision has been made yet on the future of the branch and no decision will be made until all comments have been assessed when the public consultation ends on 14 July.

"This is an open and honest consultation and Post Office Ltd would like to hear particularly about opening hours, access and facilities at other branches in the area as well as any local issues specific to the Lisnagelvin area they would like us to consider," concluded the Post Office spokesman.