Letter to the Press: Hinton St George Post Office

Dear Sir,

I am devastated to hear that the The Post Office have announced that they are to consult on the closure of Hinton St George Post Office.

I have contacted the Post Office to make clear that many in Hinton St George will consider this latest proposal a cruel deception. Right across the Yeovil constituency there will have been towns and villages where they believed their Post Office had escaped the recent Post Office slaughter. Instead, Post Offices Ltd has been keeping back proposed post office closures in a secret plan.

In talks with Post Office Ltd it emerged that because they had saved post offices in the first round of cuts they therefore needed to find others to close. They tell me that the closure in Hinton St. George is because they saved a Post Office in Street – 15 miles away. This whole process is a farce and the fact the alternative closure to Street is Hinton St. George proves beyond doubt that this reorganisation is not being based on anything sensible other than a scramble to destroy communities and make savings.

As I did in the previous round of closures I urge Post Offices Ltd to think again, but I also call on the Lib Dem run Council to consider following Conservative run Councils across the country who have entered into talks with Post Offices Ltd. to secure the future of earmarked Post Offices. To date these talks have not taken place which is a lost opportunity.