MANEA residents are backing local councillor Robert Sears campaign to retain local post offices. In July, Cllr Sears handed a petition signed by people who live in and around the village, to Malcolm Moss, MP for North-East Cambridgeshire, to present to t

MANEA residents are backing local councillor Robert Sears' campaign to retain local post offices.

In July, Cllr Sears handed a petition signed by people who live in and around the village, to Malcolm Moss, MP for North-East Cambridgeshire, to present to the House of Commons.

Of particular significance is the question of the post office card accounting system which is due to close in 2010 and which is the main means of people collecting their benefits and pensions.

"We worry about how this will affect local post offices and older people who don't have bank accounts", said Cllr Sears. "We are running a prolonged campaign to keep post offices open and we want to get the message across on how we can help these people. Many may fall by the wayside if they do not know how the post office can help them use the new system when it is introduced.

"We are lucky enough in Manea to have a thriving shop which contains our post office", he added.

The Manea post office, which has recently relocated to Park Street, is owned and run by Bharat Sisodiya.

"I would like to thank customers in the village for their support and our staff for all their hard work in moving to new premises," he said. "It is hard work to keep the post office open," he added, "but we feel it benefits everyone in the community, young and old alike.