MP speaks out over post office closures

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Post office closures across Lincolnshire were carried out with a "real lack of concern" for the public, a county MP said today.

A report on the cost-cutting programme has been published by Gainsborough MP Edward Leigh's influential Public Accounts Committee.

"The closure of the local post office can be a real blow to the community," he said.

"So the inadequate assessment by the department of the social and economic costs of its programme to close some 2,500 post offices showed a real lack of concern for the citizens affected."

Dozens of Post Office branches in Lincolnshire were shut down last year including St Peter at Gowts in Lincoln.

Two years ago the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills agreed a £1.7billion plan to make the network of post offices financially sustainable, including the closure programme.

But Mr Leigh's committee said the consultation on those closures led to complaints that decisions had already been made.

And it said the department had failed to do enough to measure the social and economic costs of shutting so many branches.

"The consultation process appeared to the public as little more than a piece of window dressing for a decision which to all intents and purposes has already been taken," said Mr Leigh.

"The consultations to which Post Office Ltd has committed itself on any future proposals for permanent closure of branches must allow the public to have a real influence on the outcomes."

From a peak of more than 25,000 post offices in 1966, the network will be reduced to just under 12,000 by the end of the closure programme. Post Office Ltd has been making a loss since 2000, and was described as at risk of insolvency by 2005/6 despite public support of £150m a year.