Labour’s Post Office cuts will be ‘hammer blow’ to community life – Conservatives defend rural Post Offices in House of Commons Debate

Malcolm Moss MP fears Uncertainty for local Post Offices and residents across North East Cambridgeshire.

Malcolm Moss, MP for North East Cambridgeshire and the Conservative Party as a whole, this week reacted strongly to Government plans to push ahead with the closure of 2,500 Post Offices across the country, on top of the 4,000 already shut since 1999. In North East Cambridgeshire, this could potentially mean the closure of 5 more Post Offices, from the current level of 31.

Malcolm Moss MP said of the planned closures:

“I fear local communities across North East Cambridgeshire will lose their only shop and vulnerable people will lose a service they depended upon. Labour Ministers have taken no account of the needs of the elderly, of disabled people or of the most disadvantaged - the very ones who will lose out most as this cuts programme rolls out.”

The Conservative Party have called a debate on Post Office closures to put their plans to the Government and try to protect the Post Offices that are so integral to rural life.

Conservatives have called for Sub-Post Offices to be given greater freedoms to offer a wider range of commercial products, are pushing for more Post Offices to be ‘one stop shops’ for local and central government services, and want to make the Post Office Card Account a more flexible financial tool with much greater functionality.

Malcolm Moss is supporting Conservative plans to maintain the Post Office network in rural areas and has asked a written question to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform about the possible closures in North East Cambridgeshire.  The Post Office responded to the question stating that a public consultation on the closures in Cambridgeshire will start on 8^th July 2008 and conclude on 26^th August 2008.  As a result of posing questions about the closures Mr Moss has been invited by the Post Office to discuss any proposed network changes in North East Cambridgeshire and he intends on opposing any planned closures that could be prevented by the modernisation Conservatives have proposed and that do not take into account local geographical factors and public transport networks.  Mr Moss and the Conservative Party have also raised concern that the public consultation period is only six weeks rather than the 3 months recommended by the Cabinet Office guidelines.

Although apparently some 90 Labour MP’s have signed EDM’s against closure it seems likely from reliable reports that they will be voting against the Conservative motion.  This is yet another example of spineless and selfish Labour MP’s looking to save Post Offices in their own constituencies but not throughout the country as a whole.