Post Office closure threats prompt politician into action
Published on 24th May 2007 in News
HEADING FOR CLOSURE?: Andrew Percy is pictured outside Hook Post Office, which could be one of the offices earmarked for closure.
Goole's political figures have this week spoken out about the latest government announcement that 2,500 post offices are expected to close by 2009.
Last Thursday, Trade Secretary Alistair Darling published details of a government consultation on the future of the Post Office network, and announced that 2,500 post offices are set to close.
The government claims the current Post Office network is unsustainable and despite an annual subsidy of £150 million, the network is now losing £4 million a week. Some 4,000 post offices have shut in the past eight years and a further 2,500 are expected to close by 2009.
"Post offices are an important service to people all over the area and it is important that we have a network that is sustainable both now and in the future," said Goole MP Ian Cawsey.
"The Department of Trade and Industry is proposing fewer branches but more community-based services, such as using the village hall which has been a success option already in the constituency, but the way ahead is to be a local working group made up by the Post Office, Postwatch, Sub-Postmasters and the local council.
"They will have the responsibility of drawing up a plan for the network across the area. Once they have done this, their plans will be subject to a six-week public consultation before any changes can be decided.
"This will not be a quick fix and the Government has committed an additional £1.7bn to support the network over the next four years. I hope that the working party will come up with a local solution that local people will feel able to support."
Nationally, opposition politicians have protested to the closures, warning of the adverse effects on rural communities, and Conservatives have called for sub-post offices to be given greater freedoms to offer a wider range of commercial products.
Andrew Percy, prospective Conservative MP for Goole, reacted strongly this week to the news and claimed that the announcement could mean six more closures of post offices in Brigg and Goole, from the current total of 34.
He said: "I fear local communities across the East Riding will lose their only shop and vulnerable people will lose a service they depended upon. We have already seen the loss of the post office in Pollington and in my own village of Airmyn.
"Labour Ministers have taken no account of the needs of the elderly, of disabled people or of the most disadvantaged - the very ones who will lose out most as this cuts programme rolls out. The Prime Minister may be changing, yet Gordon Brown is not going to offer the change that we need to save our local post offices."
It has not yet been announced which post offices will close locally, but Diane Gollop from Hook Post Office told the Goole Times that the village business could be affected.
She said: "This is a rural post office so it is likely that we will be directly affected, but we have had no formal notification as yet. We wouldn't expect to hear anything for at least a few weeks."
Andrew Percy recently launched a petition, calling upon the Government to do more to protect post offices. The petition is on-going and can be signed at www.brigg-gooleconservatives.co.uk, or by writing to Andrew Percy at 32 Main Street, Normanby, DN15 9HS.