Post office serving flats for the blind is spared axe

A post office serving a block of flats for the blind has been saved.

It is one of two in Hammersmith and Fulham that will be given a reprieve following protests from residents and councillors.

Another four will still be axed although the council plans to move them into libraries.

The Starch Green sub-post office in Askew Road, Shepherd's Bush, was saved after the Post Office admitted it had failed to take into account the 50 flats for blind and partially-sighted people opposite.

It is also expected that a branch in Shepherd's Bush Road, named by independent watchdog Postwatch as one of five closures in London it was most worried about, will also remain open.

Hammersmith and Fulham councillor Paul Bristow said: "With the help of local residents, we did our homework and presented Post Office Ltd with a dossier which they simply couldn't argue with.

"When we called them in for our public meeting, they confessed they did not know about the 50 flats for blind and partially-sighted residents."

The four branches that still face closure are 780 Fulham Road, 58 Kenyon Street, 68 Askew Road and 88 Goldhawk Road.

The announcement on plans to shut more than 2,500 post offices, including 171 often profitable sites in London, is expected tomorrow.