Today the House of Commons debates Post Office closures. 4,000 Post Offices have already closed under Labour - that’s a quarter of the country’s Post Office network. A Further 2,500 Post Offices are expected to close by 2009.
Yesterday, David Cameron joined me in Fulham to try to save the Kenyon Street Post Office, which serves a large number of elderly residents in particular. The post office is profitable, and the sub postmistress wants it to stay open.
Post offices are the lifeblood of any community, in urban areas too. They are vital local institutions, just like a local school or pub. Post Offices are essential for people who rely on them to collect benefits and pensions. Local business rely on Post Offices, neighbouring small businesses often suffer a drop in trade.
So what would we do about Post Offices? We would give sub-Post Offices more freedom to offer a wider range of business services; push for more Post Offices to be “One Stop Shops” - trained staff could then advise on a range of matters including tax returns, pension entitlements, the opening hours of local pharmacies, how to apply for a disabled parking badge etc; encourage local Councils to open “Council Counters” in local branches or put Post Offices in Council-run facilities like local libraries..
The vote tonight will be interesting to see how many Labour MPs put their party politics to one side and back the Conservative motion to suspend the closure programme.
Well done Mr Hands for highlighting the destruction of profitable POs in our area.
I noted that quite a few of the Labour MPs who had previously campaigned to save their local POs, still lacked the courage to defy their Governemtn. Well shame on them.
Keep up the good fight.
One of your loyal constituents.
Dear Mr Hands,
A couple of questions for you and your colleagues:
Is it true that the Government will only save £45 million by closing these Post Offices?
What is the net effect to the local shops that many of these Post Offices are linked to?
What is the net cost of these closure?
Given that this incompetant Government wastes vast sums of money like this this everyday, why won’t they reconsiders?
I hope that you and your colleagues will really go after those hypocrits on the Labour benches who have campaigned locally to save the Post Offices whilst all the time backing the Government’s plans.
Bob
I thought you might like to know that the MP in Portsmouth North is one of these hypocrites who have campaigned against the closure of a local Post Office and then has voted in favour of the Government backed closure plan on both occasions in Parliament.
Even more funny than that she has published an attacked on the Conservatives claiming that we are acting like hypocrites.
This type of Labour sleaze really beggars belief, mind you no one in Portsmouth would expect anything else as the MP used to be on the Council, after getting herself elected after leading the ‘ban the burner’ [incinerator] campaign. Once elected it was Mrs McCarthy-Fry who signed the contract for the incinerator to be built in Portsmouth.
It only goes to show what my parents used to say…“you can’t trust a word Labour says.”