Local MP’s response to the House of Commons Statement on the Post Office by Rt Hon Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

Sandra Osborne said:

‘It is widely recognised by bodies like the National Federation of Sub Postmasters and Post Office Watch Dog, ‘Postwatch’ that the status quo is not an option and that the Government’s proposals offer the best hope for a secure and sustainable future for the Post Office Network. The Network ‘s losses are now running at almost £4 million a week – double what it was two years ago. The Government has invested £2 billion since 1999 to support the network and will provide a further £1.7 billion up to 2011 while continuing the £150m a year subsidy for rural post offices. To secure that future, public investment has to go hand in hand with a planned reduction in the number of post offices.

As the local MP, I will be given advance notice of any proposals coming forward from Post Office Ltd affecting this area and they will then be subject to a six week consultation. I will strongly oppose any proposed closures that do not fit the access criteria that has been announced, or in any other way seriously disadvantage local people – especially elderly, disabled and those on benefits. However, it is clear from the Secretary of State’s statement that we will not be facing the widespread closure of local post offices that the SNP and other scaremongers have been all too quick to put about.

I am very reassured that the Government has put in place clear access criteria guaranteeing that 95% of people in Urban areas should be within a mile of a post office and in rural areas 95% within 3 miles. In deprived urban areas that rises to 99% of the population within a mile of a post office.

I am please to say that some of the points I made in my own response to the consultation have been taken on board. Assurances have been given that access to public transport as well as mere distance will be taken into account in any proposed closures, and also that credit unions and local councils can be more involved to encourage greater use of post offices. The Government has confirmed that it will replace the Post Office Card Account when the current contract runs out so that people can continue to withdraw their benefit from the post office. The contract for this has already gone out to tender. I will continue to work closely with the local postmasters and mistresses who have given me such helpful input into my earlier submissions to the Government on this.

The reality is that at long last we are going to have a strategy for the future of the post office network instead of allowing it to ‘wither on the vine’. Labour’s opponents who have been so quick to adopt scare mongering tactics do not themselves have any coherent proposals for the future of the Post Office. In the case of the Tories, of course, they can’t have a strategy, because they are committed to cutting public expenditure, not increasing it.