The proposed closure of local Post Offices will have a devastating impact on people’s lives, particularly on small businesses and home workers. That was the verdict of local Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone as she handed in her official response to the Post Office consultation that ended on Wednesday, April 2nd.

Ms Featherstone handed in her detailed response calling for all the Post Offices to be kept open along with more than 2000 letters, petitions and emails she has received from constituents supporting her stance. *

Her response also included the emails she had received supporting the government’s plans for closure – there were just 4 of them!

Ms Featherstone comments:

“The scale of the response and the detail of people’s comments show just how much these Post Offices will be missed if they close. The Government must listen to what is so clearly the will of the community to keep these Post Offices open.

“Closing these Post Offices is madness. Many form the beating heart of local shopping areas – if they go then other shops on these parades will become more marginal and less able to survive in a retail environment where they are more and more under fire from the big out of town supermarkets. We risk empty shop units which in turn lead to vandalism and crime.”

* Whilst over 2000 responses of various sorts were received, it is possible that some of these may be duplicates where the same person has responded through several different media.