The Post Office has named 41 branches that it wants to close in Sussex. The closures are part of nationwide plans to shut 2,500 branches.

The 41 branches which will close under the Sussex Area Plan are:

•  Bowness Avenue, 8 Seadown Parade, Lancing
•  Church Road, 137 Lower Church Road, Burgess Hill
•  Claremont Road, 23 Claremont Road, Seaford
•  Copthorne, Common Road, Copthorne, Crawley
•  Crowhurst, Crowhurst, Battle
•  Downlands, 1 Downlands Parade, Worthing
•  Durgates, Durgates, Wadhurst
•  Elm Grove, 150 Elm Grove, Brighton
•  Etchingham Road, Etchingham Road, Eastbourne
•  Fairways Estate, 4 Newick Close, Seaford
•  Framfield, The Street, Framfield, Uckfield
•  Franklands Village, Franklands Village, Haywards Heath
•  Hailsham Road, Hailsham Road, Heathfield
•  Heene Road, 62-66 Heene Road, Worthing
•  London Road, 91 London Road, Bexhill-On-Sea
•  Mount Pleasant, 2 Avis Parade Shops, Newhaven
•  New England Road, 42-44 America Lane, Haywards Heath
•  North Chailey, Haywards Heath Road, Lewes
•  North Lancing, Mill Road, North Lancing
•  Old Shoreham, Upper Shoreham Road, Shoreham-By-Sea
•  Preston, 221 Preston Road, Brighton
•  Preston Road, 13 Preston Road, Brighton
•  Richardson Road, Richardson Road, Hove
•  Slindon, Slindon Top Road, Slindon, Arundel
•  South Lancing, 83 South Street, South Lancing
•  Southern Cross, 86 Trafalgar Road, Portslade, Brighton
•  St Johns Common, 95 London Road, Burgess Hill
•  St Leonards Green, 45 Springfield Road, St Leonards
•  The Broadway, 1/2 The Broadway, Eastbourne
•  The Parade, 40 Broadwater Road, Worthing
•  The Strand, The Strand, Worthing
•  Tilling Green, Tilling Green News, 45 Lea Avenue, Rye
•  Town Row, Yew Tree Lane - Town Row, Crowborough
•  Trafalgar Street, 8 Trafalgar Street, Brighton
•  Upper Dicker, Coldharbour Road, Upper Dicker, Hailsham
•  Wannock, 41 Farmlands Way, Polegate
•  Warnham, 3 Church Street, Warnham, Horsham
•  WashingtonThe Frankland Arms, London Road, Pulborough
•  West Beach, 132 Beach Green, Shoreham-By-Sea
•  White Rock, 32-33 White Rock, Hastings
•  Willingdon, 116 Wish Hill, Willingdon, Eastbourne

Barns Green post office in Horsham, and Plaistow in Billingshurst will be replaced by an outreach service.

The future of the following eight branches is still under consideration:

•  Marine Parade, 15/17 Seaside, Eastbourne
•  Old Town Hastings, 70 George Street, Hastings
•  Collington, 2 Collington Mansions, Bexhill-On-Sea
•  Landport, 34 Lee Road, Lewes
•  Station Road, 12-14 Station Road, Horsham
•  Queen Street, 70 Queen Street, Horsham
•  St Leonards Road, 15 St Leonards Road, Horsham
•  North Parade, 24 North Parade, Horsham

This weeks Travel Blog of the week is Family Travel - See the World with your Kids. As the name suggests the blog is all about travelling with your children and includes lots of useful tips on places to go and things to do to keep them entertained. One recent article is about children and skiing. The first part of the article discusses the best age to start skiing lessons with children. It also details how to cut down on the expenses involved when taking the family skiing and has useful tips such as renting your ski equipment away from the ski resort to help cut costs.

The second part of the article mentions the growing trend for parent/child skiing lessons which allow the parent not only to learn at the same time but also to spend more time with the children on the vacation. There are also recommendations for ski resorts that include options for family members who do not want to ski and would instead rather spend time in the spa or seeing the local sights. This is certainly a useful resource for anyone who is planning a vacation with their children. Some other sections that are worth a read are the Take the Kids to London section and the Family Travel in New York City section.

Ryanair have increased the cost of checking in luggage at the airport from £10 to £12 per item. They have also increased the online fee for placing luggage in the planes hold from £5 to £6 and passengers who check in online will now have to pay £3 rather than £2. Ryanair are trying to encourage their passengers to travel with carry on luggage only, to try and cut airport and handling costs.

Britain’s worst performing train company, First Great Western has announced it will double the amount of compensation it gives to passengers affected by delays and disruption. The company carries around 60,000 people a day on its routes which link London, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and the West Country. The increased amount of compensation comes because FGW have recognised their customers are not receiving the service they deserve. Under the move season ticket holders will effectively receive their compensation when they renew their season ticket, as they will only pay last years prices. Up to 10 to 20% of the season ticket value will be refunded meaning a customer with a standard class season ticket from Bristol to Paddington will get £867 in compensation. Weekly season ticket holders and day ticket holders will also be able to claim compensation if there are significant delays to their journeys.

British Airways pilots will vote on whether to strike over the airlines plans to launch a subsidiary business. The British Pilots Association (Balpa) believes that the launch of OpenSkies will mean a two tier system of quality. The union also believes that the launch which will offer luxury flights from continental Europe to America at lower operating costs than BA will lead to pay and conditions being challenged. Balpa say that the new company will have weaker safety standards and that pilots would be required to take further courses to transfer to BA. BA however, claims that safety standards would be the same across both airlines and that OpenSkies will not be detrimental to BA pilots.

Despite the crash landing at Heathrow a few days ago aviation experts still regard the Boeing 777 as one of the world’s safest jets. There are currently 667 of the jets in service carrying millions of passengers every year. To date there has only been one fatality involving a 777, in September 2001. This was caused by a hose leading to the aircraft becoming detached and an aircraft refueller being engulfed in flames. It is still not clear what caused the most recent incident.

British train passengers are now paying the most expensive rail fares in Europe according to new research from the Liberal Democrats. In fact British train passengers are charged up to 14 times more than passengers on the Continent. £10 would take a British passenger 27 miles compared with 58 miles in France and 383 miles in Latvia. The situation is likely to get worse with more fare increases planned for the future. As prices continue to rise I think a lot of people will return to the often cheaper option of using their own car, at least that way you know you will get a seat.

This weeks PC2Paper travel blog of the week is Conor's Mildly Thrilling Tales. Its author Conor Grennan travel stories, have been featured in well known travel publications such as Traveler's Tales and  Lonely Planet. He is also the founder of the non-profit organisation Next Generation Nepal, setup to to reunite trafficked and conflict-displaced children with their families. Conor lives in Nepal where he started a home for trafficked children.

Conor's blog focuses a lot on the great work he does helping these children in Nepal. My favourite article was "Searching for families in Nuwakot" a fascinating story on how Conor managed to find the parents of 17 out of 18 children on a trip through the mountains. How he went on the trip on a beaten up bus and was encouraged to try a local fruit which ended up giving him food poisoning. If that wasn't enough he was unable to sleep on the bumpy bus journey, the buses suspension so bad he had to sit on a fleece to protect his hind quarters. At times he and the other passengers had to get out of the bus to help guide it along steep cliff ledges. But in the end it was all worth it when they got to their destination finding the parents of these children. read the full article >>

The manager of the City of Derry Airport has been removed from his post. He will return to work at the airport as an air traffic controller. He was demoted after an investigation into a four closure of the airport last May. The closure was due to a number of safety concerns including poor runway drainage and a lack of a bird control plan. A report later showed a number of shortfall in safety procedure which led to Seamus Devine being removed from his post.