Date: 19 December 2007

Have Your Say Over Post Office Closures

Conservative Candidate Offers to Respond on Behalf of the Moorlands

Karen Bradley, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Staffordshire Moorlands, has urged residents in the Moorlands to make sure that their voices are heard in the forthcoming public consultation on Post Office closures.

The Government confirmed in May this year that 2,500 branches will close by 2008, to try to plug a deficit in the Post Office running at £4 million per week.

Postwatch, the independent watchdog for postal services, advised earlier this year that customers should find out when their local consultation is taking place and make sure they make their feelings known.

Karen said:

“Staffordshire Moorlands falls into the Shropshire and Staffordshire consultation, due to take place in March 2008.  The consultation period is quite short – just a few weeks – and we must be ready to stand up for our local post offices.

The good news is that there are no quotas for individual areas and no final decisions will be taken on closures before the public consultation has been completed.  But we do know that there will be closures – 2,500 across the country – and it is important that we make our case for saving our remaining Post Offices.

Post Offices are the lifeblood of the community in many of our rural areas.  But their future is now under real threat. In Staffordshire Moorlands, we have already seen twelve Post Offices close since 1997 and we are now faced with possible the closure of more. 

Those of us living in Staffordshire Moorlands know that these cuts will hit the vulnerable and the elderly the hardest. We need to make the Post Office understand in their consultation that if the local Post Office closes, often the last shop in the vicinity closes as well – and a van for a couple of hours a week is no replacement for a Post Office open full time.”

People can find more information by calling Post Office Ltd on 08457 223344 or visiting www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange. 

Karen added:

“I would be delighted to collate everyone’s views to form a single, powerful response to the consultation on behalf of the people of Staffordshire Moorlands.  Please contact me at 30 Russell Street, Leek, or on staffsmoorlands@tory.org if you would like to send me your comments so that I can include them in an overall response.”