Hands off Essex Road Post Office

2.05.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 16th May 2007

Liberal Democrat campaigner Bridget Fox has condemned reports that Essex Road Post Office is threatened with closure under Labour's reorganisation plans.

Bridget says:

"The threat to Essex Road Post Office is the latest in a series of betrayals of our local post offices and their customers.

"Gordon Brown has undermined post offices by taking away millions of pounds worth of business such as payment of benefits and TV licences.

"We have already lost sub post-offices at Old Street , Amwell Street , Copenhagen Street, Westbourne Road , St Peter Street , and Southgate Road . This means that the remaining Post Offices like Essex Road are busier than ever. It would be crazy to close them."

In January, Liberal Democrat MPs supported a Parliamentary proposal condemning the Government's short-sighted plan to close 2,500 sub-post offices. But Labour MPs, including Islington South & Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry, voted that down. Instead she endorsed "the Government's approach of allowing Royal Mail the freedom to respond to future commercial challenges and opportunities, and in particular enabling Post Office Limited to determine the future shape of the network" - in other words, more closures.

Bridget adds: "The Labour government says that no-one will be more than a mile from a post office. On that logic, pensioners from Essex Road would have to go to Hackney. Emily Thornberry may think it's OK for people to 'go the extra mile' for the Post Office. Liberal Democrats do not. "