Baildon Labour Party are dismayed to learn of the intention to close Martins Newsagents in the town centre within the near future. 

This means not only the loss of a high profile business  in the town centre but perhaps more importantly puts into danger the future of a central Post Office. 

The town centre has lost its last bank in the recent past and if the Post Office also goes, it will be losing the final banking and postal facility used by the businesses in that area of Baildon. In fact, when Santander closed its bank branch, it cited the presence of the Post Office as a reason local people and businesses could still access financial facilities.
 
The closures will have the greatest impact in local businesses and the most vulnerable in our community, the elderly and the disabled. 

Baildon Labour Party Branch Secretary, Peter Ashton, said, ‘The loss of a further valuable service to the people of Baildon cannot be allowed to happen.  It is particularly important at this difficult time for our businesses that key facilities are not lost to them. We call upon the Post Office management to honour its promise in 2015, when it moved the facility into Martins, that the town centre would continue to have a viable provision, by seeking alternative accommodation vigorously. Further, we ask all local residents and businesses to support our call by signing our on line petition and by contacting the managers at the Post Office to express their concerns’.