Welsh Lib Dems hit out at Labour on Post Office closures

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 9th Apr 2008

The Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Social Justice and Communities, Peter Black, has hit out at Labour for targeting vital community Post Offices for closure.

Speaking in a Welsh Assembly debate today, Mr. Black questioned Labour on why they were stating that they wished to support Post Offices, but also allowing the UK government to take away business from the network.

In 2006/07 the Post Office network lost more than £200 million and had four million fewer customer visits than two years previously. At the same time, Post Office revenue from Government transactions, such as TV License sales, decreased by £168 million in 2005/06. 2,500 Post Offices are due to close across the UK. Several hundred are situated in Wales. This is in addition to the 150 Welsh Post Offices closed in 2004. So far 4000 Post Offices have been closed since Labour came to power in 1997, on top of the 3,500 closed by the last Conservative Government.

"If the Labour was serious in their claim to support the Post Office network they would be putting more pressure on their UK counterparts to stop taking business away from Post Offices." said Mr Black.

"By taking away work from Post Offices such as TV licenses, vehicle excise duty and passport authentication, through encouraging other methods of payment, Labour have cost the network over £165million. In reality this figure will be higher as most Post Offices sell other items, such as newspapers, sweets and groceries. The loss of footfall for them and neighbouring shops has made many community shops unviable."