Dundee Liberal Democrats slam Post Office closures (Dundee Liberal Democrats)

Dundee Liberal Democrats <info@dundeelibdems.org.uk>

Dundee Liberal Democrats slam Post Office closures

May 28, 2008 10:06 PM

Dundee LibDems slam Post Office closures

Dundee City LibDem Councillor for the West End, Cllr Fraser Macpherson, said today (Wednesday 28th May) that the clear feedback from local residents was a sense of despondency that two of the local Post Offices - at Lochee Road and Nethergate - are to be closed, if the proposals by Post Offices Limited are carried out.

Cllr Macpherson said, "Residents who regularly use these Post Offices find them invaluable community assets and cannot understand why the Post Office should be dismantling a network of local Post Offices that communities rely upon.

"It is clear from the detail the Post Office Limited itself has given me that the number of customers in both Post Offices in the West End proposed for closure is very significant (750-999 per week at Lochee Road Post Office and 1000-1499 per week at Nethergate Post Office) and their loss will have a significant detrimental impact on the communities they have served so well over the years.

"I am totally in agreement with Nethergate Post Office postmaster Mr Baig that the decision to close Nethergate Post Office is a strange one. Furthermore, it is open for longer each week (at 51 hours) than the next nearest Post Offices some distance further west in Perth Road, and in the City Centre at Meadowside and it is always busy and well-used.

"I am very disappointed that Labour MP for Dundee West Jim McGovern is - whilst regretting the particular closures proposed - claiming a reduction in the branch network is necessary. Labour's record on Post Offices over the past 11 years is very poor.

"The Labour Party's policy is one of managed decline of the Post Office network, developed in response to their own plan to require the Post Office to be commercially self sufficient, while at the same time withdrawing huge chunks of revenue through the decision to pay benefits where possible through bank accounts, and develop direct and online channels for vehicle and TV licences.

"By the end of the current closure programme, Labour will have overseen the closure of almost 7,000 post offices - 11 offices for every single week in power.

"I would sincerely ask all local politicians - whatever their political differences - to get behind the campaign to save the threatened Post Offices in Dundee," he concluded.

Cllr Macpherson added that he hoped all residents would use the consultation period to voice their concerns to Post Office Limited.