MAYOR Margaret Taylor has expressed her deep disappointment after Post Office Ltd announced that the sub post office at the One Stop shop in Eastleigh Road, Devizes, will close permanently on February 21.

The definitive date, announced on Wednesday by the Post Office, brings to an end a campaign led by Mrs Taylor and supported by many residents.

She said: "I am extremely disappointed that none of the practical arguments for the retention of the post office have been listened to.

"This is a terrible blow, especially to the older people who live in the area, and it will not help the service at the main post office in the centre of town.

"I have still not received an answer from the Post Office as to how they are going to staff the post office at Sainsbury's during peak times."

The death knell for the sub post office was sounded in April when Tesco, which bought out TNS, the operators of the One Stop Shop chain two years ago, announced it wanted to convert the store to a Tesco Express supermarket and needed to close the post office to make room for the extra goods it wanted to sell.

It supported the efforts of local businesspeople, like antiques dealer Judy Coom, to move the post office to their premises, but the set-up costs involved were too much for them.

Then it was thought that the post office had been reprieved when, on the day the store was due to close for conversion, Tesco said the store was to remain as a One Stop.

But Post Office Ltd had already identified Eastleigh Road as one of the 3,000 urban sub post offices that it wanted to close, claiming it wanted to protect the viability of its overall network.