AN “UNFORGIVABLE” plan to hive off yet more of Britain’s postal network to the private sector was savaged by union reps yesterday after leaving staff “in limbo” for the past two years.

Post Office Ltd — which remains in public ownership despite the privatisation of Royal Mail — announced plans in February 2013 to franchise seventy of 373 crown post offices.

At 35 locations, the keys have already been handed over to private companies — in most cases WH Smith. A number of branches have been quietly removed from the list but dozens are still set to be contracted out.

Earlier this year it was revealed that taxpayers were ripped off by a whopping £1 billion in the botched ideological privatisation of Royal Mail.

Before the sell-off, the network of Post Offices was separated from the delivery network so it could nominally remain in public hands.

But CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward urged bosses to abandon the sell-off plan post haste.

“It is unforgivable that the Post Office has left staff working in these crown post offices in a state of uncertainty for nearly two years,” he said.

“It shows poor judgment and is grossly unfair on employees who don’t know whether their jobs are safe or not.”

And he slammed officials for only paying lip-service to consultation.

“Every time the Post Office moves to franchise a branch it goes through the rigmarole of consulting with the local community, only to go ahead regardless of the significant objections,” he said.