A POST Office is to be moved to new premises despite a campaign backed by an MP.

Consett Post Office on Victoria Road will close on November 13, and reopen the following day into PhoneHub, at 40 Middle Street.

Like the vast majority of Post Offices, large and small, the branch will be run on a franchise arrangement alongside a retail business. In this case it will be part of a phones, phone accessories and stationery store.

There will be four serving positions, one screened and two open plan counters and a Post Office serving point at the retail counter.

Services will be available from 9am to 5.30pm, Monday to Saturday, amounting to 51 hours a week.

A wide range of products and services will be available, with the exception of a cash machine, though all Post Offices branches offer customers access to their usual high street bank account.

This means customers in Consett will be able to deposit and withdraw cash, as well as check their balance over the counter at the branch during opening hours.

Steve Blampied, head of Post Office’s directly managed branch network, said that the change would help to ensure the branch is commercially viable into the future and therefore protect Post Office services on which customers in the area depend.

He said: “The Post Office is committed to keeping our services at the heart of communities which we know is hugely important to people.

“This change means we can continue to do that, into the future. We are making sure we take the right action to sustain services for years to come.”

The move follows a public consultation exercise during which North-West Durham MP Laura Pidcock argued the building should be saved.

At the time she said: “The Post Office say that this move is part of the continuing modernisation of their branch network.

“The Post Office is used by constituents for a range of different reasons and always seems so busy.

“It would be such a travesty for this closure to go ahead.”