• IT is appalling to hear that the post office in Hampstead High Street is one of those proposed for closure in the future.

It is at the heart of our community.

With the loss of most of our banks, and also the closure of the post offices in South End Green and Belsize Park, it has been a vital alternative for many of the residents.

Those of us who are elderly and perhaps less mobile would find travel difficult to access postal services, and to use online alternatives.

The post office at Golders Green, which might have been the next nearest alternative, is also proposed to be axed.

Witness the queues for the services and helpful advice offered by the experienced and pleasant staff at the Hampstead office, who would also be out of a job.

It is not sufficient for the Post Office to cite costs etc.

This is an essential public service, not at the whim of an organisation only concerned with profit and loss.

One of Sir Keir Starmer’s commitments was to encourage the high streets to thrive.

In Hampstead we have lost a lot of the shops already and without the post office, it would be a further blow.

Representations need to be made in the strongest possible terms to the prime minister and to the new minister in charge of postal services.

COLETTE McNEIL, NW3