Burstow urges Post Office to reconsider closures

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 27th Oct 2004

Local MP, Paul Burstow, has urged the Post Office to reconsider its plans to close six post offices in Sutton and Cheam and dismissed the proposals as "a plan without local knowledge" in a detailed and hard-hitting response to the plans.

Paul Burstow submitted a report last week to the Post Office detailing his response to their consulation, after receiving over 400 letters from local people and face to face talks with many local businesses located nearby the post offices marked for closure.

Paul Burstow MP said:

"Elderly and disabled people will have to travel further to use post office services. Local businesses will incur extra costs and inconvenience. The vitality and viability of the shopping parades in which the branches are situated will be harmed by their closure.

"The plans to close six sub-post offices in my constituency are poorly thought out and show a lack of knowledge of the area. The Post Offices' consultation is not strategic - it is little more than a drawing together of a series of piecemeal closures into a single consultation.

"As Post Office Area Development Manager Nick Gittens himself pointed out, the post office was one of the nations most trusted institutions, that trust and goodwill is being put at great risk by these proposals and now hangs on the outcome of this consultation."

Paul Burstow's response in full is available from his website, www.paulburstow.org.uk, or for hard copies please contact Helen Kirrane on 0207 219 1196.