Where will Darling’s Post Office axe fall?

Responding to today’s confirmation that 2,500 Post Offices are to close, the Countryside Alliance has urged Trade and Industry Secretary Alastair Darling MP to identify the branches earmarked for closure as soon as possible.

The Government is to close the branches citing increasing uneconomic viability, which the Alliance says is the case exactly because of the policies of this Government, which removed £168 million worth of Government services in 2006 alone.

Alliance Campaigns Director Robert Gray commented: “The social value of the Post Office network cannot be measured in financial terms. A local Post Office is often the social hub of a community, and the “glue” that holds it together. Thousands of communities from Cornwall to Northumbria have been waiting anxiously to find out where the axe will fall and whether or not they will lose their branch, and today’s announcement will only increase their anxiety.

“Thousands of people responded to the Government’s consultation on this issue and have been effectively ignored. Mr Darling must now tell us where the branches ear-marked for closure are and whether those communities affected will be consulted, or whether their views will continue to be ignored.”