Labour Covering Up Post Office Hit List

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 26th Apr 2007

Commenting on the continued failure of the Labour Government to disclose to the public the list of post offices facing closure, Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield said:

"The Labour Government are refusing to announce their hit list of post offices to be closed until after the local elections on 3rd May.

"However, I have been informed by an inside source that all Post Office Managers in Chesterfield are being briefed on the closure plans at meetings this week.

"One in three post offices in Chesterfield and Staveley have closed under the Labour Government. Gordon Brown now plans to shut an average of three to four more post offices per constituency.

"Until the Government publish their closure plans people in Chesterfield are being denied the right to know how badly their local community will be affected.

"The Labour Government are cynically denying local people the chance of voicing their concerns over the closure programme.

"The Conservative party are no better. Under their watch they let 3,500 post offices close and 10 years later they still don't have a plan to stop more closures.

"Between them, Labour and the Conservatives will soon have closed at least 10,000 post offices.

"We are the only party that has a plan to stop the post office closures and bring new business to the post office and services to local communities."