MASSIVE RESPONSE TO POST OFFICES SURVEY

3.01.00pm GMT Wed 14th Mar 2007

MASSIVE RESPONSE TO POST OFFICES SURVEY

Councillor Kath Pinnock wants to say thank you to all the post office owners and managers who have completed and returned the Lib Dem Post Office surveys. The Lib Dems have sent a survey to every Post Office in Kirklees to inform the Lib Dem response to the Governments Plans to close even more Post Offices in Kirklees.

"We wanted to find out about the existing Post Offices and asked questions about what services the current Post Offices offer" says Councillor Pinnock. "Some Post Offices offer a wide range of services and business is growing despite government policy of taking away work such as pensions work and putting the car tax service on-line. However most Post Offices are seeing their Post Office business decline. Many Post Offices are also operating as small a shop which is clearly helping them and is a vital lifeline for local communities."

"Our biggest concern is that 40% of sub-postmasters replied that they felt that over 50% of their customers have a problem getting about - this reinforces the importance of accessibility to post offices and the difficulty that some people would have travelling out of their local area. We are very concerned that further closures will have a significant impact on this group of customers in particular."

"Some post-masters also highlighted the problem that closing the post offices where the post box is part of the post office means that people may have to travel long distances just to post a letter says Councillor Pinnock."