Save our Post Offices

Written by Kirsty Williams AM and published in B & R Express on Thursday 27th March 2008 on Thu 27th Mar 2008

The local Post Office with its Red and yellow sign is an iconic image that sits at the heart of what we see as a traditional Welsh village. But with the Labour Government's decision to close one in every five branches last year our traditional Post Office is becoming an endangered species. Last week the true extent of the threat to our post offices in Brecon & Radnorshire was revealed with announcements that there would be 6 complete closures and that 8 other branches were to shut and be replaced by outreach services.

Since the 80's our post office network has taken nothing short of a culling from the successive Tory and Labour Governments. Between 1979 and '97 3,500 branches closed under the Conservative Government, to which David Cameron was an advisor. When Labour came to power in '97 they continued the trend by overseeing the closure of a further 4000. The disregard for our Post offices was never more clear than in January last year when senior frontbench Tory MP Hugo Swire said that people should stop being "romantic" about Post Offices and either "use it or lose it".

I know that almost every resident in Brecon and Radnorshire is willing to stand up and fight against such short sighted and harmful undermining of our communities. What these Urban-centric decision-makers have not understood is that Post Offices are more than just a place to buy stamps; they are often the last remaining village shop and are social centres that can provide a community hub for economic activity, interaction and information. More recently post offices have been used to great success as Police Information Points; I even use them to advertise my surgeries.

By getting rid of services such as TV licences and the card account and threatening to get rid of vehicle excise duty and passport authentication the Government has been chipping away from within at this cornerstone to our communities. In 2005-06 the Labour Government removed £168million of business from the Post Office network. In that same year the Post Office ran an operating deficiency of £111million. By removing Government custom, Labour's erosion of services turned a potential profit of over £50m into a deficit of twice that. Since sucking the life out of this invaluable network in this way, people have not had a chance to 'use it or loose it' as the services they need have been removed. We must increase the viability of post offices not reduce it, by providing a combination of commercial services, benefits transactions and government information.

In this constituency we have seen one of the most vocal 'Save our Post Offices' campaigns in the country, with Roger Williams MP heading the campaign in Westminster. Last year he took more than 200 of our alternative consultation responses, along with 2000 named petitions to the Minister. Last week along with Lib Dem Powys County Councillors and Lib Dem Campaigners he presented over 2000 campaign post cards to 10 Downing Street. In the coming weeks Roger and I will be holding public meetings in the communities affected to listen to the concerns of locals and to plan the way forward. We would not have been able to have such a forceful campaign without the united help and support of so many people from across Brecon and Radnorshire. We must continue to fight together to ensure that our Post Offices. I would encourage everyone to join the Save our Post offices campaign by adding their voice to the Post Office Ltds public consultation on the announced closures in our area.

Please send your input by 19th May 2008, marking it confidential if necessary, to: Steve Geraty, Network Development Manager, C/o National Consultation Team, FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM; or email: consultation@postoffice.co.uk