Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal Democrats

Post Offices

Peter Black: The Welsh Liberal Democrats are happy to support the motion as it currently stands. One reason why I am particularly pleased, although not really pleased, about the way in which this debatehas been heading is that the whole tenor of the debate over the last few months-perhaps the last year-has changed to be one where the Government is arguing that post office closures are purely down to commercial considerations. I think that we now have clear acknowledgment that this is a politicaldecision on the part of the UK Government. That was implicit in Lesley Griffiths's speech and in Brian Gibbons's comments back in February, when he referred to post office closure plans being deferred until after the elections because it was purdah. That was clearly a Government action and clearly the closure of these post offices is a Government action taken for political reasons.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are happy with the motion as it stands because the post office closure programme is currently not only unacceptable to us, but is also unacceptable to the vast majority of people in this country who are going to be devastated and affected as a result. It is not an argument that no post office should ever close, because some post offices have closed for other reasons-two have closed for other, legitimate reasons in the ward that I represent on Swansea City and County Council, which I could not do much about. I would like to see them replaced, although I do not expect that to happen in the current climate.

Post office closures are currently based on the premise that the Government wishes to reduce the amount of subsidy it pays to post offices, and to do that it must cut the numberof post offices that exist in communities around Wales. In my view, that premise is flawed, because post offices are a social good and are important to their communities, whether urban or rural. It is therefore right that a subsidy should be paid to them to enable them to fulfil their social function.

Alun Davies: Peter, you sound as if you are unaware that the subsidy currently being paid to your post office is something new that was introduced by this Labour Government. There was previously no subsidy at all to post offices; it was introduced by this Government. You appear to be asking us to continue with our present policy, and we are happy to agree with you.

Peter Black: As I understand it, Alun, your present policy is to close post offices, so I have no intention of asking you to continue that policy. I am very happy that a subsidy isbeing paid, and if Labour introduced thatpolicy, then all well and good. Why are you now committing a u-turn and trying to reduce that subsidy and close down post offices in communities that need them for very good social and community reasons?

The amendments tabled by Labour and Plaid Cymru water down the main motion, and we are not prepared to support them. If, however, those amendments become part of the substantive motion, we will support them, but only because they are the next best thing tothe motion that we have in front of us. The Assembly has to send out a message on post offices. If we cannot do so because Plaid and Labour refuse to allow us to send out the message that the post office closure programme should end, then we will at least send out a message that we should try to make post offices as viable as possible and try to keep as many as possible open in that way.

The post office development fund, which was created under the former Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition Government, and which will hopefully be restarted next year, is crucial in helping to make those post offices viable. If we are serious about making post offices viable I hope that the Government listens to us on this and brings back that fund earlier than it had intended to do. If we are serious about doing this, perhaps the UK Government should also listen to Liberal Democrat policy, which is to create a £2 billion fund to invest in post office branches around the UK to make them more viable, to allow them to diversify and to allow them to survive as commercial going concerns and as the social lifeline for many communities. Such things need to be done if we are to keep post offices open. That is what I would expect to see from the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru, which are supposedly committed tothe Post Office and to making the post office network viable. I hope that Plaid Cymru lives up to its rhetoric on this issue and that, instead of trying to water down this motion, it supports it as it is currently written. It is clear that the post office closure programme that we have in front of us is not fit for purpose; it will devastate communities, it will undermine the social networks in those communities,and will leave many pensioners and vulnerable people stranded without those services. If we do not stop it and if we do not revisit this issue in the way that this motion envisages, then we are letting those people down.