DEJECTED Holywells residents have lost their battle to keep Felixstowe Road Post Office open, the Evening Star can reveal today.A formal decision has not been announced but the only way it could have been saved is if Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services in our region, opposed the decision to close the branch.

DEJECTED Holywells residents have lost their battle to keep Felixstowe Road Post Office open, the Evening Star can reveal today.

A formal decision has not been announced but the only way it could have been saved is if Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services in our region, opposed the decision to close the branch.

However, a letter from Postwatch, said: "Although many customers will be put to some inconvenience, we are satisfied that with continuing access to post offices at Queen's Way and Heath Road, together with the new site at Cauldwell Hall Road, that services can be maintained."

When it was announced that the Felixstowe Road branch was closing, it was planned to install a post office in the Co-op in Hines Road.

But halfway through the consultation period, that scheme was scrapped and replaced by an idea to place a branch in Cauldwell Hall Road.

That post office will be opened before the one in Felixstowe Road closes and the existing branches at Queen's Way and Heath Road are also going to be improved.

These changes are expected to include a lower level counter, access for wheelchair users and air conditioning being installed. The alterations should be finished within three months of the Felixstowe Road closure.

Holywells borough councillor Liz Harsant lives in Salisbury Road, near the post office and feels the community has been let down.

She said: "I am absolutely devastated for the people that live in my ward. It is a great loss to the people of Holywells and again we are being treated badly.

"The community is gradually being eroded. It was a way of life and it has been taken away from them."

Paul West, Conservative parliamentary prospective candidate, had been fighting to save the branch. He said: "It is a huge blow to residents. People in the Felixstowe Road area are left marooned because they have not got a sensible or realistic alternative to use.

"The consultation process, I feel, has been a bit academic and the post office made up its mind in the beginning."

A Post Office spokesman today said the consultation period had ended but "no decision" had been made regarding any of the branches, including the one in Felixstowe Road. The spokesman added that a formal announcement will be made in two weeks.

n How much impact will this closure have on you? Write in to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk or visit the forum at www.eveningstar.co.uk