PO consultation: MP’s official response
North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson, has submitted a detailed response to Post Office officials at the end of the six week consultation period on closures in Cornwall.
The document, which runs to some sixteen pages, sets out opposition to each of the planned closures, and highlights the value local communities place on their branches.
Mr Rogerson also details successive Conservative and Labour Government failures to support the Post Office network, calling the closures "this generation’s Beeching style mistake — the effects of which will be felt for many decades to come". He launches a searing attack on the consultation process, which he says “commands no confidence among the communities it was tasked to engage.”
He concludes: “The proposed closure programme for the North Cornwall area – from Morwenstow in the East to Newquay in the West – represents a hammer-blow to our communities, to village life, and in particular to the many vulnerable people in my constituency who rely on Post Office services. The plans represent the worst of Government policy, which appears insulated from the realities of life in rural areas. Indeed, the criteria themselves are transparently oblivious to rural deprivation.”
Commenting he said:
“I have worked with communities all over North Cornwall to make sure we respond fully to the consultation process.
“My own submission is based on the hundreds of letters I received from local people, in defence of their branch.
“I wanted to make sure Post Office officials heard our voices loud and clear. We don’t believe this process has worked. We don’t believe the closures are necessary. We oppose the whole “network change” programme.
“Liberal Democrats have fully costed plans to save the Post Office network. By freeing Post Offices to do business with companies other than Royal Mail, and ensuring they operate as a one-stop-shop for Government services, we could secure the future of the network.”
“It’s time Ministers listened to local people and stopped these closures in their tracks.”
