Lib Dem PPC To Fight Post Office Closures

12.00.00am GMT Thu 13th Dec 2007

James Keeley, Lib Dem PPC for Skipton and Ripon has promised to fight the proposed closure of Post Offices in the Constituency and has visited two of the ones under threat namely Kirby Malzeard and Northbridge.

Mr. Keeley stated what Liberal Democrats believe about Post Offices:

"They are an integral to the communities that they serve. They are usually combined with other services, such as the local shop. When the local post office closes other services often follow suit, which can be devastating for local people.

It is vital that the true social worth of this network is remembered as well as its economic value when decisions are made about post office closures.

Post Offices in rural areas play a vital role. They are part of the fabric of the society that they serve similar to the local school or village pub. They also provide vital face-to-face access to government, postal and commercial services for communities which may not have, for example, a local bank branch.

Both Councillor Bernard Bateman and I visited the Northbridge Post Office. We saw at 4.30 on a Tuesday afternoon how very busy it was. We were impressed by the personal service we saw and were shown the bags upon bags of post that were being dealt with. The Post Office cannot be serious about closing Northbridge down. It simply does not make sense.

All of us must fight to keep our local services. We must send a message to this Government that our communities matter. I hope that the proposed closure of these two post offices will not be the first wave of many more to come. I along with my Liberal Democrat colleagues will do all we can to keep our Post Offices and at the same time send out an SOS: Save Our Services."