IT is widely known by now that Post Office Ltd has earmarked Haworth Main Street post office for closure.

We are familiar with the argument that elderly residents of the three sheltered communities around the top of Main Street will find the hilly journey to queue at a counter at the Co-op on Station Road very difficult, not least in winter.

We know (although it would appear that Post Office Ltd did not) that the Main Street post office, on one of the most iconic streets in the UK, serves not only the thousands of visitors to the village but also the many businesses on and around Main Street. The Bronte Society and the Bronte Parsonage Museum use the post office every day to send out their mail and parcels.

But what we did not know until very recently is that, a couple of weeks ago, Post Office Ltd sent out a ‘field officer’ from Leeds. His job is to visit post offices which are slated for closure, and the surrounding areas, to assess whether the closure should go ahead. This particular field officer, a man in his forties, made the walk from the Co-op on Station Road to the post office on Main Street and, after he had caught his breath and mopped the sweat from his brow, went back to his superiors and told them that Haworth needed two post offices – the existing one on Main Street and the proposed post office counter in the Co-op.

Pretty straightforward, and the right decision made by assessing conditions on the ground, one might think. But, no, Post Office Ltd senior management chose to ignore the field officer’s recommendation and are persisting in planning the closure of the Main Street post office.

This bizarre decision echoes the flaws we see in the whole consultation process. Post Office Ltd is supposed to conduct a six-week public consultation before making the decision about a closure. In this case, they told the postmaster that they were terminating his contract. After a bit of a local outcry, a public consultation was hastily put in place on July 16. This ends on August 27. People want a public meeting in Haworth with Post Office Ltd, but we have recently been told that this must be requested as part of the said public consultation. Many people had already completed the consultation online and are not permitted to submit a further consultation making that request from the same email address. Elderly people complain that the online consultation is difficult for them to access and complete.

We need to have much greater transparency with Post Office Ltd’s decision-making process. And we need to keep Haworth Main Street Post Office.

You can sign our petition at change.org/SaveHaworthMainStPostOffice.

Take part in the consultation (and please ask for a public meeting) at postofficeviews.co.uk, by emailing comments@postoffice.co.uk, writing a letter to FREEPOST Your Comments (literally that's all you need to put on the envelope), calling 03457 22 33 44 or by text-phone 03457 22 33 55.

Follow us on Facebook – Save Haworth Main Street Post Office – or Twitter, @SaveBrontePO.

Lydia MacKinnon, Stanbury, for the Save Haworth Main Street Post Office Campaign

* We invited Post Office Ltd to respond. A spokesperson said: "We are proposing to move Haworth Post Office to the newly-opened Co-op foodstore, Station Road, Haworth BD22 8NF. Haworth Post Office is currently operated on our behalf by a temporary operator. We are looking for a more sustainable solution for customers served by Haworth and the temporarily closed Haworth Brow branch.

“Consultation runs until August 27. The quickest way to give feedback is online at postofficeviews.co.uk with the branch code 301306. Alternatively, email comments@postoffice.co.uk, write to Freepost YOUR COMMENTS, or call 03452 66 01 15 or text-phone 03457 22 33 55.”