SAVE OUR POST OFFICES: Lib Dems lay the blame

[jemima]

From the Worthing Herald

Someone's really been doing their research here

http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/worthin ... 3532134.jp

SAVE OUR POST OFFICES: Lib Dems lay the blame


WORTHING councillors fighting to keep post office branches open have laid the blame at the door of past governments.
Members of the Liberal Democrat group at Worthing Borough Council are tabelling a motion to support the town's Conservative MPs in their campaign, while addressing decades of post office closures.

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Bob Smytherman has criticised Conservative reforms in the way the Post Office works, 1979 to 1997.

A statement issued to the Herald by Mr Smytherman on behalf of the Liberal Democrat group said: "The Tories did nothing to help the Post Office to prepare for the challenges ahead.

"Between 1992 and 1997, they prevaricated and introduced piecemeal and limited reforms, which failed to strengthen the network.

"By 1995, £1 billion was taken from the Post Office by the Treasury plus a further £1 billion over the next two-and-a-half years - they invested none of this money in the post office network.

"A commitment in 1994 to modernising benefit payments failed and by late 1997 the ICL Pathway Project was £600 million overspent and three years behind schedule.

"More than 4,000 post offices closed under the Tories, between 1979-1997, 974 Crown Post offices closed and 3,482 Sub-Post Offices closed.

"Michel Heseltine, minister responsible for post offices, repeatedly made it clear that his desire to see a fully privatised Post Office was frustrated only by the extremely small majority of the Major Government."

Click here to see the table of post office closures the Lib Dem group has put together, showing the numbers during the Conservative's last 10 years in power.
http://www2.worthingtoday.co.uk/post%20 ... 0table.pdf

Council motion

The motion to be read out at the council's Tuesday, December 11 meeting reads:

Proposed post office closures in Worthing and Adur

Worthing has received the news that it is to lose four more sub-post offices with dismay.

This will equate to the closure of nearly one in five of the remaining post offices in the network.

These post office in Downland Parade, Heene Road, Broadwater Road and The Strand, provide crucial community and commercial services for the residents and businesses in their areas.

Their loss would be a devastating blow, especially for the elderly, the less mobile and the disabled.

This council believes that to expect customers to have to travel for up to an additional mile to access alternative post offices will make life very difficult for many people.

It will be impossible for those who do not have cars or for whom public transport is not available or accessible.

This council considers that instead, these post offices should be allowed to flourish by diversifying their business.

It, therefore, calls upon the Government to halt this closure programme before it causes irrecoverable damage to our society and our local economy.


This council further notes the social importance of post offices to the well-being of individuals and communities in Worthing.

It believes that the latest closure programme is unnecessary and calls on the Government to:-


1. Remove the Royal Mail restrictions on the Post Office to open up further business opportunities for the network;

2. Stop removing Government business from the Post Office;

3. Review which additional Government functions could be carried out through post offices;

4. Invest in the post office network.

This council supports our MPs Peter Bottomly and Tim Loughton in their campaign against the programme of closures in Worthing and Adur and calls upon the public to sign the various petitions against the cuts.

The Liberal Democrats on-line petition has been launched which reads:

"We, the undersigned, call on the Government to stop the unnecessary Post Office closure programme affecting local Post Offices in Worthing, and instead free the business from restrictive regulation, invest in the future of the network and stop removing government business to safeguard our local post offices."

Click here to sign.
http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/page296

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Sorry refuse to sign any Lib Dem petition because their stated policy aim is to

Establishing a shared ownership model for Royal Mail with a 51% majority of shares divided equally between the government and a Trust for Royal Mail staff, with half of the remaining 49% of shares sold directly to staff and small investors and the remaining shares being offered for sale to the market.

Basically full privitisation.

However to present a fair picture they have some good ideas:

Ensuring that Royal Mail staff have a full opportunity to participate in the running of the company as part-owners and through a staff council.

Giving Postcomm, the Regulator, the power to place a levy on other operators who do not undertake the USO to pay towards its cost.

3. Sub-post offices to be used as shop fronts for a variety of public bodies such as local councils, the police and central government.

All above quotes selectively taken from http://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/ag ... genda.html

[jemima]

To make it clear, I have only reproduced the article as I found it, I am not suggesting that the petition should be signed by anyone on here.

The Post Office closures are attracting a lot of attention from people who think that a Post Office accessible for everyone is an essential public service, and that Post Office preservation is necessary for community wellbeing.

They're also attracting attention from everyone who wants to dig a hole for Gordon Brown's government to fall into. Now we have voted to accept the agreement, they'll feel on safer ground attacking the government's attitude towards RM. Leighton's obscene bonus - poor posties trying to cope with difficult working conditions with nowhere to keep mail pouches safely - late deliveries etc......
We'll have to get used to Lib Dem and Tory interest. I'd rather have them attack Gordon Brown for mismanagement than have them put the blame for bad service on lazy posties. They'll put political gain above potential profits from privatisation of RM, if the benefits are large enough in terms of public approval (and potential votes). A "Your Royal Mail, run for Your Benefit" campaign would be a public approval magnet.

[BELIAL]

So the libs have started a petition to save OUR post offices in Worthing have they? Nearly as bad as the Tories starting a petition to save our hospital at Chichester! What with Labour as the go between we are doomed they all just wont to sell us all off for a tidy profit and all services are stuck in the middle waiting for the gavel to fall! any one else begining to feel like a slave?

EH bit crazy then how a lib MP just down the coast thinks we must modernise and move with the times; but at all costs protect our local post office