Street protest to be staged in Mayo over post office closures

A PROTEST is to be staged on the streets of Castlebar on Saturday to condemn the closure of post offices across the county.

A totat of 11 post offices are due to shut down over the coming weeks due to the retirement of postmasters.   

They are Ballindine, Ballyglass, Belcarra, Carrowmore-Lacken, Cross, Doocastle, Finney, Hollymount, Kilmaine, Partry and Scardaun.

Speaking on Castlebar Community Radio, Castlebar Fianna Fáil Councillor Martin McLoughlin, who attended last night's public meeting at when concerns were raised over the closure of Belcarra and Ballyglass Post Offices, confirmed the Castlebar protest will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

He elaborated: "Enough is enough. Our rural communities are taking too much of a hit and it has to stop. My own party will be playing a role in this campaign. Those closures cannot be allowed to continue."

In a statement earlier, the Minister for Rural and Community Affairs Michael Ring stated An Post and the government were not responsible for the closures, but the communities who  failed to use their local post office on a regular basis.

He added that if local post offices were being used by communities, many of the postmasters/ mistresses opting for the retirement packages would not be doing so.