WARRENDER PARK Post Office is facing closure in a move that has left local residents furious.

A packed community meeting on 9 September, chaired by Mike Pringle MSP saw residents demand that the branch stay open, as Bruntsfield and Tollcross Post Offices were not seen as viable alternatives. 

Local business representatives said the closure would affect them financially, and concerns were raised for the residents of the branch’s three nearby retirement homes. 

The post office is frequented by many students during term time and is the only branch in the south of Edinburgh which stays open until 7:30pm on Saturdays. 

Former Edinburgh medical student Fern Mellor said: “The extended opening hours offered at Warrender Park on a Saturday are exceptionally convenient for students; last year, I was often expected to be in class or on placement before 9am and regularly finished after 5pm making it impossible for me to visit during the week.

 “Closing our local branch would effectively deprive me of access to post office facilities - I simply don’t have time to travel further afield and wait in an enormous queue. The Post Office will lose my business.”

Since only around 50% of Marchmont residents own a car, many are reluctant to travel far to a new location.

Liberal Democrats Westminster spokesperson Fred Mackintosh highlighted that since the Post Office’s consultation period ends on September 29, many students in the area would be unaware of the impending closure. Submissions to the consultation can be made at the branch or online.

Post Office representatives at the meeting said the cuts are part of a ‘Network Change Programme’, due to the loss of revenue to the internet. The organisation now posts a loss of over £4 million a week.

Edinburgh is one of the last areas in the country to face Post Office cuts as part of the programme. Around 2,500 Post Offices are to be closed around the UK, leaving over 12,000 left.

Previous attempts by the government to close rural Post Offices have been met with similarly harsh opposition.

The campaign to keep Warrender Park Post Office open has recieved support from a cross-party group of politicians including Edinburgh South MP Nigel Griffiths, who said he regretted that Edinburgh City Council had not chosen to subsidise the branch.

At the meeting, he stated that there was ‘an overwhelming case for saving Warrender Park Post Office’.

The consultation period will end on 29 September, with the decision made public on 21 October.