MP demands debate on threat to close West Somerset sub-Post Offices

A PARLIAMENTARY debate to try to save some of West Somerset’s sub-Post Offices from being closed by the Government is being demanded by the district’s MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger.
Mr Liddell-Grainger is leading cross-Party calls for the debate after failing to obtain a list from the Government of local sub-Post Offices which could be doomed under plans to close 2,500 in the next 18 months.
He said: “I do not know whether the Government does not have a list, because the Post Office is drawing it up, or if it does have one but will not release it.
“Either way, MPs across the political divide are saying it is scandalous – we want to know where the losses will be.
“Any loss of rural Post Offices is absolutely unacceptable, so I have asked for a debate.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger said the issue had been debated in the Chamber but not in the Westminster Hall ‘where we have a better chance of bending the Minister’s ear’.
He said: “It is an unfolding disaster that started when the Government refused to allow Post Office to sell its facilities as first choice – they come after banks and building societies.
“Margaret Beckett promised there would be ongoing funding for rural Post Offices until after 2010. That promise been broken.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger is now writing to postmasters and postmistresses in the constituency ‘to keep them up to speed’ with the issue.
Our photograph above is for illustration purposes only and does not imply any direct threat of closure to the sub-Post Office concerned. Photo submitted.