A SOUTH Lakeland town has lost a post office because not enough people used it.

Panjalingham Karunakum-aran, who owns the Heathwaite Convenience Store, in Park Road, Wind-ermere, said he decided to shut the kiosk because he was financially better off without it, and said it has been lost because people did not use it.

Postal chiefs had earmarked the kiosk for closure as part of their cost-cutting Network Change programme, which will see the closure of 17 Post Office branches in South Lakeland, Furness and Eden.

Mr Karunakumaran said: "I'm better off closing it down. I had to pay for someone to man the kiosk. I'm losing nothing. They (Post Office Ltd) say that if you close it early then you will get the compensation, but they said if I fight it then I won't get any compensation."

Mr Karunakumaran, who also runs the Post Office in Burneside, which reopened on Wednesday following a three-week closure due to an audit of the lottery machine, said the Heathwaite Post Office kiosk had been closed because not enough people in the town used it.

"Why are they (Post Office Ltd) closing it down?" He said. "Because it has not enough people using it. I have to pay minimum wage plus holidays for someone to stand there.

"If we were busy here I don't think it would be possible for them to close it down."

Some people have been fighting to keep the post office kiosk open, and Mr Karunakumaran says he welcomes their support but said they should realise the reasons why his kiosk has been closed.

"I don't mind if they win their campaign against the Post Office but they have to think why the post office is closing in the first place," he said.