POST OFFICE CLOSURES: "DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS"
Posted on Friday, May 18 2007
Moray's SNP MP Angus Robertson has expressed his great disappointment and concern in reaction to the Department for Trade & Industry's Ministerial statement on Post Office closures.The Trade and Industry Secretary, Alistair Darling, confirmed the closure of a further 2,500 post offices by 2009 on top of the 4,000 alreadyshut down in the past eight years. Overall this amounts to one fifth of the UK's post office network.Speaking after the statement the SNP's Mr Robertson said:"The Post Office remains essential to Scotland's rural communities. This statement merely confirms that the network will suffer death by athousand cuts. " There remains no detail of which Post Offices will close. The agony for many communities goes on. The only glimmer of hope is that thegovernment have belatedly accepted the need to include the impact on local economies, something the SNP have long pressed for." The government need to make it absolutely clear how the area proposals will work in Scotland and in rural areas we could be talking about massive areas."" Earlier this year, in a meeting with my Moray SNP colleague Richard Lochhead MSP, Postmasters in Moray made clear their concerns for the future of the network and made various suggestions of how Post Offices could be secured and both Richard and I have raised these suggestions with the relevant authorities. However, the government wishes to press on regardless and this I feel is an indication that the London Ministers simply do not care anymore." There is still some hope that organisations such as local authorities and tourism authorities may be able to work with Post Offices to broaden the range of services provided and this would certainly help but without the support of the London government then it is very much an uphill struggle.ENDS
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