THE fight to save the Wells Road post office at Fakenham is gaining pace.A petition against the closure, which shop owner Brett Cordor has said he will personally deliver to prime minister Gordon Brown at No 10 Downing Street, contained 864 signatures as of early Tuesday afternoon.

THE fight to save the Wells Road post office at Fakenham is gaining pace.

A petition against the closure, which shop owner Brett Cordor has said he will personally deliver to prime minister Gordon Brown at No 10 Downing Street, contained 864 signatures as of early Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Corder's wife, Maria, who co-owns the Budgens store which houses the sub-post office, said she was delighted with the early response for their campaign to save the busy sub-post office.

“We are over the moon at the response to our petition and to have more than 850 signatures in one week is amazing and people are still coming in to add their names,” she said.

Mrs Corder said that not everyone realised how important the post office is in that part of the town. It served many of the outlying villages: “There is tremendous growth of homes planned on a green field site in this area of Fakenham, off Rudham Stile Lane, and there is also the re-development progressing at West Rayham Park on the site of the former air base,” she said.

She pointed out that for people buying and selling on eBay it was a tremendous benefit to have somewhere to post their parcels.

“We have parking in front of the shop and there is a ramp for people with disabilities so it is much easier to use this post office than the one right in the town centre in the Miller's Walk shopping arcade,” she said.

Mr Corder has been employed by Budgens for 30 years and the couple were delighted when they were able to acquire the Wells Road business. They were planning a refit of the shop which would have included the post office counter area, but that has now been put on hold.

“You also have to remember

that if this proposed closure goes ahead four people on the post office side could lose their jobs,” she said.

At its meeting on Tuesday, Fakenham Town Council pledged its full support to the campaign to save the post office and is to make its views known to North Norfolk District Council.