Save our Post Offices
Posted by David Howarth, MP for Cambridge, at 14:45, Thu 18 January 2007:
Post offices across the country are under threat. The Government has announced plans to close 2500 sub-Post Offices as part of a restructuring of the Network. Here in Cambridge we have already lost almost one third of our sub-Post Offices since Labour came to power.
Post Offices provide an essential service for those who cannot access the banking sector due to problems with their credit rating or because of uncertainty about banking charges. A Post Office is also the social centre of many communities, important both for those who use its services and for those running shops nearby which sometimes struggle to survive when a Post Office is lost.
The Government has consistently undermined the financial viability of the Post Office by removing many of their more profitable functions such as their role in processing TV licences, vehicle excise duty and their involvement in passport authentication. They have made the future of Post Offices very insecure and so it is little wonder that so many sub-Post masters and mistresses are struggling.
At a House of Commons debate on Post Offices last week I challenged Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alistair Darling to say whether the 2500 closures will be the last. He made no promises. I have also written to him and to the Chief Executive of Royal Mail asking for their assurance that no more Post Offices will be closed in Cambridge. So far neither the DTI's nor Royal Mail's responses have given me any such assurances.
The Government has launched a consultation into their plans for the Post Office network. More information on the consultation can be found at http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page36024.html. I have set up a petition to Alistair Darling demanding that he protect the remaining Post Offices in Cambridge which will be sent to him before the consultation closes on March 8.
To sign the petition, or to send me your views on the situation, please email petition@cambridgelibdems.org.uk.
With best wishes
David Howarth MP for Cambridge
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