A TOWN mayor said the decision to close one of the busiest post offices in his market town was terrible and would hit pensioners hard.Amongst the Suffolk branches planned for closure are three in the Stowmarket are - at Combs Ford and Crown Street in the town, and at nearby Old Newton.

A TOWN mayor said the decision to close one of the busiest post offices in his market town was terrible and would hit pensioners hard.

Amongst the Suffolk branches planned for closure are three in the Stowmarket are - at Combs Ford and Crown Street in the town, and at nearby Old Newton.

Mayor Frank Whittle said: “I never thought Combs Ford would go, it's a busy post office, that poor man, it's his living.

“It's terrible to close any, especially this one. The old people there are being punished and so many people rely on it. It's the lifeblood of the community in that part of town.”

Patsy Stammers, a Combs Ford resident who has lived in the community for 64 years, said: “I have cried so much, everybody has been crying.

“I love my community and I love the people in it. I feel so upset for the vulnerable, the elderly. We have very little here in this part of Stowmarket and this could be a nail in our coffin.”

Keith Scarff, one of the Mid Suffolk district councillors who represents the town, said the announcement was terrible and he would like to see local authorities consider pouring funding into keeping some of the branches open.

John Matthissen, a Mid Suffolk district councillor who lives just outside Stowmarket at Great Finborough, said: “I can understand it if a post office with hardly any business or in a little tiny village with another one a mile away is lost, it would still not be good, but I could understand.

“But here the post office serves the whole community. This is a very, very bleak day indeed for the communities affected.”

Postmaster Dee Suchak, who has served the town from the branch for years, said he was not allowed to talk about the announcement.