Local Post Offices Must Be Promoted and Protected - Bruce

4.29.42pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 22nd Mar 2005

Gordon Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce today spoke up in defence of the national post office network and highlighted the impact of branch closures in his constituency. Speaking in a House of Commons Westminster Hall debate, Mr Bruce said:

"When I first became MP for Gordon there was a thriving network of post offices in the area, including Crown offices. Over the years this number has steadily declined, with a loss of many services routinely used by my constituents. Very frustratingly, when the Crown office closed the Post Office refused to allow its services to be provided by a local sub-postmaster, even though he was keen to undertake them.

"Post offices are no longer attractive businesses. As the number of services they offer declines they have stopped being viable businesses. With such a bleak future ahead of them, many sub-postmasters and postmistresses understandably took compensation to close their business. This happened in Port Elphinstone, Pitcape, Auchleven and Bankhead, resulting in a real loss to the local community.

"We need to find other forms of business for post offices to offer. This will effectively cross-subsidise the post offices' traditional services. In this way I hope we can secure a viable and profitable future for the post office network."