Plans to relocate Springburn’s Post Office within a business has prompted fears the service could be moved outside the area’s shopping centre.

Residents say they fear a relocation could result in the demise of Springburn Shopping Centre, which is already lacking investment and a variety of shops.

The issue was raised at Springburn Community Council’s meeting on Monday, August 15 after Maryhill and Springburn MSP Bob Doris met with Post Office representatives to discuss the service future in the area.

The community council heard that the Post Office have been looking for potential retail partners to continue the service within the Springburn area.

Post Office say this is being done to ensure that the business is commercially sustainable in the future.

Duke Street Post Office in Glasgow’s East End is also going through the same process.

Maryhill and Springburn MSP Bob Doris, however. said at the meeting: “For me the business which takes on the Post Office should remain in the Springburn’s Shopping Centre or as close to it as possible.

“I am really disappointed they have not spoken to the community first before they started this process.”

Residents at the meeting said the current Post Office in Springburn is extremely busy and is often queued out the door.

Concerns were raised that people would have to wait in bad weather in area which provided no shelter.

One local man also admitted he is worried that the service may be taken on by Tesco supermarket which is situated in the St Rollox Business Park, and away from Springburn's centre.

It is understood that bids have been put forward by WH Smith and Nisa – but Post Office say they have made no decisions yet.

A spokeswoman for the Post Office said: “The current position with both these branches is that we have been looking for potential retail partners to work with so that, into the future, we can ensure that they are commercially sustainable.

“We’ve made no decisions yet and before we do there will be six-week public consultations for each.

“These will be held once we have drawn up detailed proposals – we’ve not got to that stage yet.”

She added: “We already operate the vast majority of our Post Office branches on a franchise or agency basis. We have a small number (around 300 of 11,600 branches) which are directly-managed by the Post Office (Crowns) and in some locations these ‘stand alone’ branches will struggle to survive in years to come.

“This is because of factors such as rising property costs and changing customer trends, such as online transactions.

“We can’t expect taxpayers to subsidise these branches so we are taking the right actions to protect services for people and keep our branches on high streets.

“We’re committed to maintaining our network of Post Office branches at around the same size.

“When we franchise Crown branches (i.e. operate them from a dedicated area within a local retail store) we typically provide the same services for customers and there is frequently the benefit of longer opening hours, including Sunday opening.

“We can therefore reassure people that what we are doing is making sure that the services they need are maintained in convenient locations for years to come.”