THE Post Office has been accused of failing to work within its own guidelines when it controversially shut six sub-post offices in York.

York MP Hugh Bayley claims the organisation failed to check how many people lived within a mile of a post office in York - "as their own guidelines suggest they should".

He says the guidelines state that 95 per cent of the population in an urban area should be served by a post office, but the Post Office did not know the percentages in York before and after the closures.

He is writing to the Government Minister responsible for postal services, Gerry Sutcliffe, to ask him to tighten up rules for consultation when future closures are planned.

But the Post Office today denied his claims, saying that the consultation process had followed national procedures agreed with the watchdog body, Post Watch.

A spokeswoman claimed that 95 per cent of York's population would still live within a mile of a post office following the closures. She said the public consultation had lasted six weeks, and involved meetings with Mr Bayley and the local authority. Information provided by the Post Office had included the distance between various sub-post offices.

Six sub-post offices - in Albemarle Road, Boroughbridge Road, Clarence Street, Fishergate, Gale Lane and Holgate Road - closed down late last year despite protests from hundreds of local residents.

A cloud is still hanging over a seventh, in Bishopthorpe Road, which was originally earmarked for closure but remained open temporarily following the intervention of PostWatch.

Mr Bayley said that while no final decision had yet been made over its future, he hoped it would remain open indefinitely.

The MP told of his concerns over the closure procedures in a letter to a constituent concerned about the closure of Fishergate post office.

He said: "I am very unhappy about the process by which the consultation was run and further concerned that insufficient account was taken of the representations made by members of the public."

He said he had been surprised to discover that the Post Office did not release any information about the turnover of the threatened branches, except in a very limited way to PostWatch.

Updated: 10:19 Wednesday, January 12, 2005