Release: 28 June 2004

Labour MPs playing charades with Post Office closures

Local Labour politicians who have criticised the closure of 16 Post Offices in the Swansea area should be directing their venom at their own government according to local Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black.

He was responding to press statements issued by Gower and Swansea West AMs and MPs criticising the Post Office for their proposals and branding the consultation process as a charade. He accused these politicians of playing games with the electorate so as to avoid responsibility for the closures falling on the Labour Government who, he says, have forced the Post Office into cutting branches through a series of policy changes and blunders.

Speaking after a meeting with the Post Office’s Head of Commercial Urban Area, Dave Barrett, Mr. Black said that Labour Government policy had forced the Post Office to adopt a commercial ethos, had lumbered them with a multi-million pound computer project that went wrong and had cut Post Office branch income by 40% through the payment of pensions and benefits into bank accounts. “As a result of these changes Post Office counters incurred significant deficits that could only be met by closing sub-Post Offices,” he added.

“Like these Labour politicians I am instinctively opposed to any Post Office closures and will fight as hard as they do to try and keep as many open as possible. However, we will not do that by pretending that the problem lies solely with the Post Office or openly trying to deceive people as to why these closures are happening. This campaign should be about protecting the local communities who will be hardest hit by these proposals, not about seeking to deflect blame from the Labour Government onto the Post Office as these Labour politicians are trying to do.”

“Many customers will be massively inconvenienced by these closure plans. However, if Alan Williams MP really wants to register his unhappiness in an effective way he would do better to talk to his own Government who, so far, have been responsible for over 100 urban Post Office closures around Wales.”

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