MP holds consultation on Post Office closures

1.42.20pm GMT Wed 20th Feb 2008

The Post Office is planning to close three branches in the Twickenham constituency.

Cambridge Park (East Twickenham); Broad Street (Teddington and The Common (Twickenham Green). The news was given to Vincent Cable, MP, in a meeting with Post Office network managers in parliament. The planned closures are part of a national closure programme and follow five earlier closures in 2002/3 (there are others in Richmond Park).

Vincent Cable is writing to local residents affected to make an assessment of the impact on local communities before making an appeal. He said: "the closures are bound to be a problem for elderly people, the disabled, and mothers with young children who lack mobility and cannot easily make the extra half mile to the next post office. Many people will simply not understand why three branches, all of which are doing well and making money, are being shut down as part of some national programme. The post office network is being systematically starved of new business by the government and, even taking into account some inevitable drift from post office benefit payouts to bank accounts, the business opportunities of the network are being neglected".

"While we have some scope for opposing damaging closures there is always the danger that the Post Office may reprieve one branch but close another".