Faced with more than 200 angry residents, representatives from Post Office Ltd came to a public meeting yesterday to justify plans to close the Moatfield post office in Bushey.

Blaming the Government for the axing of 2,500 post office branches across the country, the firm’s representative, Claire Lovett said: “This is not about policy, the policy is done. We don’t want to do this. The Goverment told us to do it. The Government can’t keep plowing money in to the network and we have to make sure the rest of the network is sustained.”

She said Post Office Ltd was bankrupt and losing millions of pounds a year.

As previously reported in the Watford Observer, hundreds of residents, people from three sheltered homes, business owners, school staff, politicians and representaives of a nearby development of hundreds of homes have protested against the plans.

Ms Lovett argued that a computer model had picked out the office for closure after analysing its proximity to other post offices, the financial benefit to the firm and local bus routes.

When asked for the figures used in this calculation, however, she and a collegue were unable to produce facts, instead urging residents to provide details themselves.

This prompted instant heckling from the frustrated audience and at one point, she threatened to walk out of the room.

Leader of Hertsmere Borough Council, Morris Bright and Hertsmere MP James Clappison both criticised the consultation process saying the Moatfield office was unfairly added to the closure list despite earlier reassurance that it would be kept open to counter the closure of a branch in Bushey Hall Road.

Mr Clappison said the consultation process was “profoundly wrong on its merits and unjust to the people of the area.”

Councillor Bright added: ”We will not allow a second post office to close in Bushey when people are still reeling after the axing of the first branch.”