15/12/06 - Concerns At Labours Plans To Close Further 2500 Post Offices

LOCAL CONSERVATIVES DISMAYED AT CLOSURE OF 2,500 POST OFFICES

Swindon Conservatives today reacted with grave concern at Government plans to close 2,500 Post Offices across the country, on top of the 4,000 already shut since 1999.

The cuts will start next summer. In Swindon we have already lost a number of local post-offices, despite high profile campaigns by local residents.

Cllr Justin Tomlinson, North Swindon Conservative Parliamentary Candidate commented:

“Post Offices are the lifeblood of Swindon's community. But their future is now under real threat. These cuts will hit the vulnerable and the elderly the hardest. Labour Ministers need to recognise 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.

Robert Buckland, South Swindon Conservative Parliamentary Candidate added:

“Conservatives have called for Sub-Post Offices to be given greater freedoms to offer a wider range of commercial products and are pushing for more Post Offices to be ‘one stop shops’ for central government services.  There must be a more positive way of meeting the challenge than wholesale closures.”