Last ditch plea to Post Office Ltd over local branch closures

As Post Office Ltd decides the future of two Hull North post offices threatened with closure, Diana Johnson MP has made a final appeal to save the branches.

The call comes in the Hull North MP's formal written submission to the consultation on Post Office Ltd's 'Network Change Programme', which concluded on Monday 12 November.

Two Hull North post office branches, at 504 Beverley Road and 75 Princes Avenue, face the axe from January 2008.

In her letter to Post Office Ltd's Consultation Team, Diana argues that the proposals to close these two branches, within a relatively small area of Avenue and Newland wards, give insufficient weight to local factors, such as deprivation, low car ownership, the proportion of elderly residents, and levels of home access to the internet that are among the lowest in the country. These factors mean a greater reliance on post office branches than elsewhere, the MP argues.

Diana Johnson MP has been lobbying Post Office Ltd over the closures, has organised a petition against them and held the only public meeting in Hull North during the consultation period to be attended by representatives of Post Office Ltd.

Diana Johnson MP said: "Post Office Ltd makes the final decisions on its post office branch network - not MPs or the Government. Many local people, including pensioners living in the affected areas, are concerned about what the closure of local post office branches in Beverley Road and Princes Avenue will mean for them.

"I appreciate that Post Office Ltd faces tough decisions about their branch network due to falling customer usage, greater consumer choice, EU competition rules and new technology. This is despite the fact that the Labour Government is providing £1.7 billion of taxpayers' money to support the branch network. Without this subsidy only 4,000 branches - rather than the current 14,300 - would be viable across the country.

"Whatever happens about the two branches at 75 Princes Avenue and 504 Beverley Road, I will continue my campaign to maintain the post office branch network and the Royal Mail as an integrated public service. This petition can be signed through my website at www.dianajohnson.co.uk or by ringing my office on 01482 319135."