Muammar Al Khadafi

Bridgwaters no Post Office saga continues with news that the portacabin post office scheduled to open to provide a temporary town centre office has been delayed yet again.

That will provide an 'enjoyable' place for the elderly in winter, queueing back to 50 places out in all weathers and freezing as they wait to cash their pensions.

We had a great main Post Office on Cornhill, it was closed.

It then moved to Martins Newsagents in Angel Place, where it had significantly less counters and staff. That is now closed.

Now, we've next to no Post Offices.

Monmouth Streets is gone and is now a block of flats, although one can cite mitigating circumstances there since it closed after the elderly proprietor was attacked with a metal bar and robbed.

Bath Roads is now a fishing tackle shop, although a good fishing tackle shop at least.

Both had been a feature of the local area for many years, as had been the main Post Office on Cornhill.

We're left with a branch in Wembdon and a branch on Parkway - which, as anyone local will tell you, are both outskirts miles from where many people live.

Oh, and a North Petherton branch we're told is a part of Bridgwater - try walking there if you live on Bristol Road or Monmouth street, take a packed lunch.

Good luck to any elderly living centrally and having to walk from most parts of the town to one of those in order to cash their pensions.

Bridgwater did have an excellent main Post Office, and numerous smaller post offices who also delivered an excellent service - now most of us have miles to walk in order to find a Post Office.

The whole fiasco is symptomatic of what is happening to Bridgwater, where services which people rely on vanish, and all Sedgemoor District Council do is reach temporary - but useless, and usually costly one way or another - agreements that do not get delivered on time.

Still, we're sure they'll tell us that this progress at some point, it's bound to happen, although progress towards what is another question altogether.