WITH post offices being closed, areas of Newton Abbot had reached the stage where people needed cars to get to post offices and shops, Cllr Keith Smith told the full council. He said that throughout Teignbridge there were a number of small settlements being de-classified as countryside and he likened parts of Newton Abbot to these. Cllr Smith referred to the fight to retain Newton Abbot's main post office in Market Walk. The post office wants to close it and move it to Costcutter, in Queen Street. Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross said from now on people would no longer be able to renew their television licences in post offices. 'I am very worried about the post office rural network and there has been a deliberate policy in closing the urban network. 'We saw the post master at Decoy (now closed) treated in a shameful way by Royal Mail and I made my views known to them,' he said. Mr Younger-Ross said the inquiry into the plans to close the post office in Newton Abbot was this month and he had indicated that he would make his views known. 'The whole Royal Mail system is in a certain amount of crisis. Rural collections have been cut back to once a day – they collect when they deliver. 'That is not a lot of use to a small business in a rural area. It is a shameful way for the post office to act,' he said.