Post Office acts badly for Dame Judi Dench

Lacock post office in North Wiltshire has enjoyed the limelight in starring roles for TV period dramas such Cranford and Pride & Prejudice. Yet despite attracting the attention of Hollywood actress Dame Judi Dench, 74, to fight for its cause the branch has failed the Post Office audition for survival.

It is one of 2,500 branches earmarked for the chop and is set to close down forever on April 1st after a six-week consultation. For subpostmistress Emma Hands, 40, it is a double blow after losing her 52-year-old husband Michael in August last year to a fatal heart attack.

In a statement sent to Financial Mail Dench wrote: 'I am sorry I am unable to come to Lacock to support the campaign as I am currently away filming but wish you great success in keeping the post office open.'

Dench is not the only Dame to throw her weight behind the campaign as it also has the backing from National Trust director general Fiona Reynolds. The trust owns the property along with most in the village, and allows no modernisations, TV aerials or street lights - making it a magnet for movie sets.

It is easy to get nostalgic in such a beautiful period setting, surrounded by 16th Century Tudor cottages, but the harsh closure reality hits modern business too. Four pubs and coffee houses, a jeweller, bakery and 21-acre garden nursery will also be affected on top of the villagers and hoards of visiting summer tourists.

The maths don't stack up. The Post Office reckons it loses £200 million a year from the network but at the same time wants to spend £1.7 billion to restructure it. Shutting branches on an ad hoc geographical basis without looking at whether branches make money makes absolutely no business sense.

The simple truth is that Government meddling, bungling bureacrats and an incompetent Royal Mail management have been a slow but lethal cocktail for the post office network. Forget all that nonsensical spin they churn out to hide their own inadequacies. It is nothing but a dreadfully bad act. They should take a lesson from Dame Judi Dench and allow the post office to fend for itself.

Toby Walne

toby@walne.co.uk