Coun Jane Evison and Coun Jonathan Owen who represent East Wolds and Coastal ward of East Riding of Yorkshire Council want the council to put pressure on the Post Office to give residents of Barmston and Burton Fleming villages the services they need.

As a result of complaints they are asking colleagues at the full ERYC Council meeting on Wednesday February 25 to get Post Office Services Ltd to update them on the effectiveness of its outreach services brought in after local post offices were closed.

Coun Evison said, “We fought long and hard to save our post offices, in particular Burton Fleming, but we do not feel the Post Office have taken the situation seriously and I think they have renaged on their commitment to provide a satisfactory outreach service.

“The suspicion is if they fail to provide a suitable service people will in time find an alternative way of accessing post office facilities and allow them to withdraw the outreach service completely.”

Coun Jonathan Owen said: “Since the very first moment the Post Office announced possible closures and promises of outreach facilities there has been no evidence of any genuine commitment on their part to make the service work. All that has happened is that they have succeeded in causing friction in communities with local groups having to bid against each other to host their service and then growing frustration as those services are not being realised.

“We need to have a proper response from the Post Office as to how they are performing. This is in addition to them showing no commitment to work in partnership with East Riding Council to continue offering services to our communities.”

The councillors hope by getting the council to seek a view from Post Office Ltd on how they believe the service is working it will highlight the current problems.

Their comments follow the on-off relationship people living in Burton Fleming and Barmston have had with their mobile outreach van which since it was brought in just over nine months ago has frequently failed to appear at the appointed time, in one instance being off the road for five days for a repair to an electrical fault, leaving villagers without a service.

Last week, its driver, Julie Lowther who is postmistress at West Hill in Bridlington, is due to pack in the job at the end of this month saying she is “fed up to the back teeth” letting people down both there and in the village of Barmston, and having no support from the Post Office.

The Post Office said the situations had been due to technical problems and they were currently seeking someone to take on the mobile post office after Julie leaves.