New Post Office Hit List Will Damage Our Local Communities - Nicholson

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 4th Oct 2007

Reacting to last Tuesday's announcement of the first 180 post office branches set to close under Labour's cuts to the postal network, Chris Nicholson, local Liberal Democrat Campaigner, has warned that these closures will block access to essential services.

On Tuesday the government published a list of 180 post offices earmarked for closure. These will be the first of some 2,500 postal services set to close as part of a planned reduction to the size of the postal network.

Labour plans to close around 2,500 post offices

The list concentrates on the areas of Kent, East Yorkshire, and the East Midlands (1). But there remain around 150 post offices in South London that are still under threat from Labour's cuts with an announcement on these expected in April 2008.

Chris Nicholson, local resident and Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Streatham, has already received around 5,000 signatures from people protesting about the plan to close the post office on Streatham High Road and transfer counter services to a WHSmiths (2).

Speaking about the announcement, Chris Nicholson said:

"The Labour party is trying to sneak out these unpopular closures when they think people won't notice while all this speculation over an election continues."

"But I don't think people will be fooled by this, local residents know how essential their post offices are, and are willing to speak up in order to protect them."

"I, and many others, will continue to object to the planned closure to the Streatham High Road Post Office as such closures are only the first of many."

NOTES

1) East Yorkshire (45), the East Midlands (77) and Kent (58)

2) Still planned for next month, in the Streatham constituency there are just 9 remaining post offices, with half of these being under threat.

3) Chris Nicholson has set up an on-line version of his petition to protect Streatham High Street Post Office, it can be found at: http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/streathampostoffice

4) The Liberal Democrats have pledged to invest £2 billion pounds into the Post Office network to save endangered branches, and make it a legal requirement for the Government to maintain the Post Office Network