A WATCHDOG may be given powers to ensure urban areas keep badly needed post offices, York MP Hugh Bayley revealed today.

He was speaking after meeting Government Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and Postwatch chairman Peter Carr in the wake of seven sub-post office closures in York.

The MP has expressed concern at the closures and at the way the public was consulted beforehand by the Post Office.

He has been particularly concerned about the decision to shut the sub-post office in Bishopthorpe Road in spite of objections from Postwatch.

He said he had suggested to the Minister that the watchdog should be given teeth. "I said that Postwatch should be able to designate urban communities that need a post office, and require the Post Office to provide one," said Mr Bayley.

The MP said this was a more practical solution than simply blocking the closure of an existing sub-post office.

The Minister welcomed the idea and Postwatch will now come forward with some firm proposals.

Mr Bayley also told the Minister how he had been battling for information from the Post Office on whether closures meant York was now missing the organisation's own targets.

He said that in urban areas, 95 per cent of people were meant to live within a mile of a post office, but the organisation had been unable to supply statistics revealing whether York had now fallen below that target.

He said the Minister had asked a senior civil servant to speak to the Post Office to see whether such information could be provided.

The MP said he had also raised concerns about growing queuing problems as customers moved their business to the remaining post offices. He had called for some of the Government's existing subsidy to urban post offices to be used to help counteract the problem.

The MP's efforts have been backed by York Labour councillors. "If we could strengthen the powers of Postwatch, we could at least give local communities a better chance of saving branches that may be threatened in the future,' said Coun Sandy Fraser.

"As it stands, even where Postwatch recommend the branch stays open the Post Office can go ahead and close it anyway."

Disabled pensioner Louisa McCabe, 89, of St Benedict's Road, used Bishopthorpe Road post office to collect her pension on a weekly basis, but now has to collect it from a cash point instead.

She said: "Both me and my husband have arthritis and need sticks to walk - it wasn't just a post office to us it was a place where we met our friends to have a natter."

Updated: 10:23 Friday, March 18, 2005