The meetings, held in each village's community centre, were both packed to capacity. They were held as part of the consultation process, to give villagers the chance to express their views to post office authorities and make a case for their post office to be reprieved.

A total of 2500 post offices out of the organisation's 14,000 throughout the UK are earmarked for closure.

The community councils of Queenzieburn and Banton, supported by their council councillors, are fighting hard to retain the post office.

Attending both meetings were Sally Buchanan, the Post Office's network development manager Scotland, Julie Morrison, its head of external relations; and Linda Birney of Postwatch, representing users. Also present were MP Rosemary McKenna, MSPs Cathie Craigie and Jamie Hepburn, and Councillor Jean Jones.

At both meetings, the post office representatives stressed that the organisation was losing £175m per year and that there were fewer people using the post office because many of its services were now available elsewhere.

They pointed out that even if the full closure programme was
Ms Buchanan said that hard decisions would have to be made, but a final decision had not been taken and she wanted to hear from villagers.

Ms Birney said that they accepted that the post office was in difficulty and the government had decided that 2500 had to close, whether they liked it or not. Postwatch's job was to work with Post Office Counters to identify the correct post offices that should be closed.

"Postwatch will do everything in its power to get your points over," she said.

She also advised people to write personal letters to Ms Buchanan, with copies to Postwatch, rather than relying on petitions or public meetings, valuable though these were.

And Ms Buchanan assured folk at both meetings that the points they had raised would be taken into account.

Community Councils in both villages have also sent written submissions summing up the main arguments against closure.

People in both villages claim that the Post Office is using flawed statistics for population figures, age profile, car ownership etc.s Buchanan said these were taken from the 2001 census. Councillor Jean Jones is ascertaining up-to-date figures.

There was also strong criticism that the decline in post office usage was because many services had been taken away from it.

There is worry that the closure of the village post offices would affect the viability of the shops in which they are situated. Villagers point out that these are not only necessary amenities, but are used as a meeting place, especially by the elderly., who would lose their independence.

In Queenzieburn, it was emphasised that the extra cost of public transport to Kilsyth for those with no bus passes, such as mothers with young children. Some old folk and disabled would require a taxi to take them to Kilsyth, a £7 round trip – and then standing in large queue at Kilsyth. A man pointed out that due to the topography of Queenzieburn, getting to the bus stop for some people was like an obstacle course.
There were also road safety factors involved in a trip to Twechar, as there was no footpath for much of the way.

And in both Banton and Queenzieburn, it was pointed out that care workers who attend senior citizens and disabled would have to use the time allocated to each individual in taking a bus to Kilsyth to collect pensions etc for their clients, meaning that personal care would be non-existent.

The unreliability of the bus service was mentioned, plus the cost to the environment of extra journeys by car.

Part of Queenzieburn Community Council 's response to the plans refers to the possible closure of the shop, which they claim would be 'disastrous'. "The village would no longer be a village but would resort to a housing scheme with no amenities. We are a village community. How can we attract incomers to our village without a Post Office and possibly with no shop? House owners would find difficulty in selling their houses and our village primary school may suffer. The school uses the post office regularly for sending mail.

"With no shop, there would be no ATM machine and villagers would have to travel to banks. We would have no basic services such as bread, milk, papers etc. Should the village be cut off by extreme weather, as it has been in the past, we would have nowhere to get money or purchase basics. Your actions will result in what can be described as the death of our village.".

Chapelgreen Primary School has added its voice, explaining that they use the service daily, and going to Kilsyth would cause real problems.
Banton folk told Ms Buchanan that Banton was 3.2 miles from Kilsyth Post Office and not 2.7 miles as stated by the Post Office, therefore they had a good case for keeping the facility open. Ms Buchanan said she would have the distance re-checked.

The lack of parking at Kilsyth Post Office was also mentioned, but Banton folk, like their Queenzieburn counterparts, were very concerned about the social implications of closure on the future of the village and the school, the cost of public transport, a poor bus service, and carers having to go to Kilsyth to pick up pensions, not to mention the environmental impact of car emissions at a time when we are being urged to reduce our carbon footprint.

Ms Buchanan was also asked to look at the impact on small businesses. Carol Carter said that the post office was ideal for the needs of her small business, and that if she had to use the post office in Kilsyth, it would use up valuable time.

MP Rosemary McKenna spoke at both meetings. She said she had met Post Office officials and the Minister responsible for the Post Office, Pat McFadden. She would be putting forward her own submission after taking on board the views she had heard at the meetings. She had voted to put in the £1.7m subsidy to save some services but they could not save them all. Hard decisions had to made on this issue. Three of the five post offices in the constituency were threatened with closure and Mrs McKenna urged everyone to take part in the consultation.

MSP Jamie Hepburn, speaking at Queenzieburn, said he was carrying on is own consultation exercise, but added that he did not think the Post Office should be a business, but a public service.

He added: "If a business is losing £175m per year I question why its chief executive is allegedly earning £1m."

Councillor Jones has obtained correct statistics to pass on to the Post Office to back up residents' claims. And members of North Lanarkshire Council's local area partnership agreed on August 14 to support any attempt to prevent the closure of the post offices.

Queenzieburn Community Council thank the people of the village who attended the meeting.

Secretary Jean Strutton said: "The large turn out showed that we have your support and that you care about your village as much as we do. Many others in the village could not attend but assured us of their support too. The closing date for the consultation period is September 1, and we shall continue to campaign until then. It's good to know that the village supports its community council, and that makes our hard work worth while. Thank you all."

Wendy Hoyle of Banton and Kelvinhead Community Council echoed Mrs Strutton.

"I thank every who came along and supported us," she said. "It was a phenomenal turnout. Banton and Kelvinhead people should be very proud.
I feel who made a good case, based on hard facts, for keeping our post office open. Our main point is that we are more than three miles from a main post office, not 2.7 as the Post Office seems to think."

The consultation process ends on September 1.



QUEENZIEBURN Senior Citizens Association has submitted its own response to the Post Office, pointing out that many of the elderly people are upset and worried that they will not be able to manage the journey to Kilsyth. They stressed many of the points raised at the meeting, adding that they have always thought of the post office as a service and that the proposals were adding worry, stress, fear, and heartache at their time of life.