Liberal Democrats demand Government comes clean on Post Office closures

9.00.15am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 1st May 2007

The Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Suffolk County Council today accused the Government of attempting to hide the impact of its post office closure programme on local communities ahead of the May elections.

Speaking about the issue Councillor Kathy Pollard demanded that the Government immediately come clean on its proposals so that the voters could judge for themselves.

Post Office closure facts:

·The Government plans to close 2,500 post offices but has conveniently delayed its response to the consultation on the proposals from March until after the local elections

·Over 300 post offices close every year

·49 Post Offices have closed in Suffolk since 1999 - a 16.4% decrease

·There have been 4,000 post office closures since Labour came to power and there were 3,500 closures under the last Conservative Government

·The South East was among the areas with the highest number of closures (please see table in notes for figures)

Cllr Pollard said: "Communities across Suffolk are deeply worried about losing their local post office and the government is deliberately concealing the details of the post office closures until after the local elections.

The Government behaves as if the Post Office's decline is inevitable and nothing to do with them. But time and again - on pensions, road tax, television licences and passports - they have taken business away.

Labour and the Conservatives have failed to support this vital network. Only the Liberal Democrats have fully funded proposals for investing an extra £2 billion into the Post Office network.

And the Tory administration at the County Council seems to be slow in responding too. My group and I put a motion through Full Council calling for the county council to assist the post office network in any way it could. That call was accepted back in July 2006 but we have yet to see any real action. Meanwhile post offices continue to be under threat across Suffolk."