Filed under: Post Office
Having grown up living above a village post office run by my parents, it is fair to say that I am a strong supporter of the nation’s network of post offices – especially those which are at the heart of a local community.
So the government’s confirmation today that 2,500 post offices – a fifth of those left in the UK are to close because the current network was “unsustainable” is not in my view a welcome decision. This decision comes following a sham ‘consultation’ exercise’ launched last December where the public could express their views on the closures. In typical New Labour style, the Government has once again shown its contempt towards the public and ignored their views.
The government’s rationale for these closures is that post offices are loss making – hardly surprising when this government has taken away a number of core services such as processing TV licences and passports from post offices. Furthermore, the government’s claim that by closing post offices it will save the public purse significant sums money is laughable in light of the exorbitant sums it constantly squanders on failed government IT systems, ID cards, pointless government projects and not to mention government bureaucrats.
For our remaining post offices to survive the government must commit that no further services will be withdrawn from post offices, otherwise small communities across the country will not only lose their local shops and services but this would inevitably lead to the economic decline of some of the most fragile local communities across the country.
