MP to meet Minister over post office closures (From Blackpool Citizen)

MP to meet Minister over post office closures

7:30pm Monday 24th March 2008 in News By Tyrone Marshall

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden has stepped up his efforts to have the proposed closure of sub-Post Offices in his constituency reviewed.

Mr Marsden has already written in strong terms to Post Office Chief Executive Alan Cook with detailed arguments for reviewing the proposed closures and Post Office Minister Pat McFadden MP has agreed to meet with him this week.

Mr Marsden said "I know people feel very strongly as do I about these proposals and so I'm glad the Minister has agreed to meet with me to discuss them.

"I'll be pressing him on the points I made in my strongly worded letter to Post Office executives that I sent last month.

"My submission to the consultation takes into account the correspondence I've had from groups locally including the local Age Concern and also my constituents. The St Anne's Road store has both some of the highest usage figures.

"When I met with Post Office executives in February to discuss their closure plans I left them in no doubt as to how strongly we feel about this in Blackpool. I highlighted the impact on financial access for older people and pensioners and travel implications of their plans to close the St Anne's Road post office - which is also a potential factor in Layton. Some of the Post Office's regular customers are vulnerable, older or disabled people and the high usage statistics for the St Anne's Road store show it is valued by the local community."

Mr Marsden last met with the Post Office Minister Pat McFadden when he questioned him on the WH Smith franchise agreement which saw the Crown Office counters move from Abingdon Street to Bank Hey Street last year.

Mr Marsden said: "I am continuing to press the Minister and the Post Office Chief on the damaging consequences of the move to Bank Hey Street especially for disabled customers. I have been contacted by people who have been unable to use the counters in the basement of the WH Smith branch because the lifts were out of order - I will be telling the Minister that when I visited the store recently things had not improved."

Mr Marsden dismissed the Tory opposition day debate in Parliament last week as a political gimmick. He said: "The Tory motion had no alternative proposals and failed to mention or to match the Government's commitment of £150 million a year to maintain the Post Office network. Without this money from Government the network would collapse. Don't forget that 3,500 post offices were shut down under the last Tory government, and with no supporting financial packages for the remainder".