A RAMSBOTTOM councillor is calling for an investigation to be carried out into the way the Post Office conducts its consultations before counters are closed.

Coun Barry Theckston is to complain to the post office watchdog after it was announced another local branch is to shut despite protests from the community.

The Post Office today confirmed it is to close the Nuttall Lane counter as part of a national plan to shut down 3,000 of its 9,000 bases.

Coun Theckston is questioning the way the six-week consultation was carried out and feels the decision was already made before anybody was consulted.

He said he is disappointed after receiving an identical letter to the one he got when nearby Shuttleworth Post Office in Whalley Road closed earlier this year.

He is now putting forward a formal complaint to PostWatch, the Post Office watchdog.

Coun Theckston raised suggestions in his letter which he said have not been considered: "This is just not acceptable. Elderly people are going to have to go miles out of their way now to make use of post office facilities in the town.

"In my letter, as well as many other residents who wrote in opposition to this, I raised a suggestion to provide Ramsbottom with a mobile post office service like in Scotland. This was not replied to, I just received the same letter that I got last time I wrote in opposition of Shuttleworth, which says they have taken into consideration comments that came from the consultation but they are going to shut it anyway."

He added: "I am rather angry about this and will write to the post office watchdog for them to investigate the way the consultations are carried out."

Ramsbottom's Nuttall Lane Post Office in Bolton Road is among five branches in Bury North earmarked for closure.

Duncan Baxter, Nuttall Lane Post Office sub-postmaster, said: "We have been here for nine years but a decline in people using the post office has brought this about. It will be a shame for the local community."

Coun Theckston added: "Post offices are part of the British way of life and part of a community, but it seems as though there is an agenda to run the community down."

A spokseman for Post Office Ltd said: "This is a closure programme. We are proposing to close them to ensure the viability of the remaining offices.

"Providing a mobile post office would defeat the purpose of what we are trying to achieve -- to spread the custom out help the survival of other post offices.

"The councillor is perfectly entitled to complain but we adhere to the code of practice set out by PostCom, the regulator, and PostWatch, the watchdog for customers to complain to if they so wish."