Save Post Offices

10.50.29am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 10th Jun 2007

On 17th May, Labour ministers announced they are to press ahead with 2500 Post Office closures, despite the concerns about the impact that were raised during their so-called consultation. The new closures come on top of the 4,000 that have already closed under Labour since they came to power in 1997 and 3,500 that were axed by the previous Conservative government.

Given the Blair/Brown Government's record on the Post Office, it has to be said that the announcement came as no great surprise. Labour have been demolishing the network by stealth by stripping away business and leaving it in a Royal Mail straitjacket that prevents the network developing new business opportunities with, for example, other mail and parcel delivery providers.

In Parliament and throughout the country, Liberal Democrat MPs and campaigners have taken the lead in campaigning to keep open Post Offices threatened with closure. But campaigning against closures is not good enough if there is no solution to the Post Office crisis.

West Midlands Liberal Democrat Vice Chair Colin Ross "Since 1999 we have seen the number of Post Offices in the West Midlands fall by 338, leaving many communities are now without this vital community facility. It is a problem affecting the whole region, there are now 15 less in the Leominster constituency and 11 less in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency"

The Liberal Democrats are the only party with a funded set of policies to keep Post Offices open. At our conference in Spring 2006, we agreed a number of radical policies to protect and improve the Post Office network. We would keep Post Office Ltd in the public sector but split it away from the Royal Mail. We would then raise £2 billion from the sale of a minority of shares in Royal Mail and invest this money in the Post Office network.

This will mean new equipment and new services. We will free the Post Office from Royal Mail controls that prevent branches doing business for other parcel delivery companies. The investment will also enable Post Office branches to be the shop front for local government.

We will also ensure that staff working for Royal Mail will be given a quarter of the shares in the company, allowing them to share in the success of the company and to be partners in it, similar to the way staff are partners in the John Lewis Partnership.

Colin added "The West Midlands Liberal Democrats are encouraging as many local parties as possible to take part in the petition that the party is carrying out across the country to save Post Offices, the text of which is below"

The petition

Use the following wording for the petition on saving Post Offices in your Focus leaflets and tabloids:

We, the undersigned, call on the Government to stop the unnecessary Post Office closure programme, and instead free the business from restrictive regulation, invest in the future of the network and stop removing government business to safeguard our post offices.