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Post
Office freedom Under Labour 4,875 sub-post offices have closed since 1997, almost ten a week. Now the Post Office has named 180 of the 2,500 branches that it will shut over the next two years, including Richardson Road in Hove. These cuts will hit the vulnerable and the elderly the hardest, as well as having a huge impact on mothers, unemployed and the sick who currently receive benefits through the post office. This is bad news
for local communities. It confirms many people’s worst fears – our
Post Office network is being decimated. By the time of the next election
this Government will have closed over one third of the entire Post Office
network. Decisions by this Government have contributed to the losses
being made by the Post Office network. Under Labour, Government
Departments have taken away services from Post Offices, such as benefit
payments, road tax and TV licences. Mike
Weatherley, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hove and
Portslade said:- “I recognise the fantastic service provided by sub-postmasters to their local communities. They tell us that they do not want to depend on subsidy, but instead want the opportunity to do more business and serve their customers. Yet that is exactly what the Government is denying them. By bringing new business opportunities to the network, our proposals would make Post Offices more economically viable. Conservatives would rewrite sub-postmasters’ contracts, allowing them to provide a greater range of products and services, including private mail services. Conservative’s Post Office Action Plan provides the possibility for post offices becoming a kind of Government GP with trained staff advising on a whole range of matters such as tax returns and pension entitlements, the opening hours of local pharmacies, and how to apply for a disabled parking badge. Conservative’s
will encourage local councils to see what services they could provide
though Post Offices and whether they could use the Post Office network in
their area to engage more fully with local residents.
The long-term future of the network will be best secured if the
Post Office is opened up to new markets and new customers. This would
ensure that vulnerable people were closer to their Post Office.” Conservatives
have repeatedly called on the Government to review its earlier decision to
abolish the Post Office card account (POCA). We are delighted that the
Government has yet again responded to our arguments and changed its mind.
Mike comment:- “This
scheme is hugely important to those people who do not have bank accounts
and around one million of our most vulnerable people cannot get a bank
account. The Government should now work to make the POCA a more flexible
financial tool. It is all about the Post Office and the services
they provide being more open and flexible.”
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