Stop Labour's Post Office Swindle - John Leech MP

1.16.57pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 5th Apr 2007

John Leech MP and Chorlton campaigner Paul Ankers have been fighting against the sell-off of local post offices.

Manchester Lib Dem John Leech is joining with other MPs to force the government to rethink their plans to devastate south Manchester communities by closing yet more local Post Offices.

The present Labour government has already shut down a quarter of the post office network nationally and the Prime Minister has announced a further 2,500 closures. South Manchester has been heavily hit by the closures leaving thousands of people unable to visit their local Post Office and adding to the decline of local communities across the area.

"The government simply do not understand the benefits that having a local post office has for people," said John Leech MP. "They simply do not want to listen. Hundreds of people across our area have expressed their anger at the cuts and their frustration that Labour seem determined to run down their local shops and businesses.

"The government argues that the post offices are not 'viable', but this is only because they have taken massive amounts of businesses away from them. I recently met with post office chief Alan Cook and made clear to him that South Manchester could tale any more closures."

"Last year, my Lib Dem colleague, Julia Goldsworthy MP, proposed the Sustainable Communities Bill which would give local people the power to stop the decline of businesses and the environment in their area. The bill has gained the support of 15,000 individuals, 80 national organisations, 300 local organisations, over 350 MPs and 1,000 councils. Yet despite this, the Labour-run council have refused to support it and the Labour government are working as hard as they can to see it fail."

<<ENDS>>

Notes to editors:

John Leech MP has signed Early Day Motion 1201 - Post Office Network (No. 2) calling on the government to review its policies towards post offices. The text of the motion reads:

That this House is concerned by the fact that a quarter of the Post Office network has closed since 1997, with at least 2,500 further closures planned by the Government over the next two years; is further concerned that it has been suggested that the Post Office network could be reduced to just 4,000 branches; recognises the important social role played by post offices; believes that the Government's proposed access criteria are essentially meaningless as two thirds of all post offices could be closed without breaching them; believes that access criteria should be improved and strengthened to take into account factors such as public transport facilities; and calls on the Government to give greater certainty to the sub-postmasters by setting out where it intends to make cuts and setting a limit on the number of closures over the next two years, to allow sub-postmasters to provide a greater range of products and services and to encourage local councils to see what services they could provide through post offices creating council counters in their area better to engage with local residents.

John Leech MP met with Alan Cook, Managing Director of Post Offices Ltd. and other senior Post Office managers to discuss future closures. He made clear to the heads that Manchester, Withington Constituency had been badly hit by previous closures during the Network Reinvention Programme and could not afford further cuts.

The Sustainable Communities Bill is currently in the Committee Stage in the House of Commons. Labour MPs had tried to get the Bill "talked out" during its First Reading and Communities Minister Phil Woolas has made numerous "wrecking amendments" during the Committee stage. For more information on the Sustainable Communities Bill see http://www.localworks.org