Post Offices in Haringey have been saved from any threats of closure, after Liberal Democrat Business Minister Ed Davey this week announced a deal between Royal Mail and the Post Office.

This welcome news, which will help to create a sustainable future for Post Offices across the borough, means that the area will avoid future mass closures, like the one seen in 2008, when Post Offices in Alexandra Park Road, Weston Park, Ferme Park Road, Salisbury Road and Highgate Village were shut.

After ending the shameful Post Office closure programme, which nationally saw more than 7,100 Post Offices disappear in Labour’s 13 years in office, Ed Davey has announce that a ten-year deal has now been reached between Royal Mail and the Post Office. The deal gives additional certainty to subpostmasters in Haringey and covers the full range of Royal Mail products available at Post Offices, such as first and second class post, parcels, air mail, recorded and special deliveries.

The deal adds to other recent progress for the Post Office, with extra Government cash kicking in, new national and local government contracts won, successful piloting of new models to transform many local Post Offices and improvements in financial services offered.

Commenting, Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone said:

“After years of Post Office closures under the Labour Government, it is excellent news that Liberal Democrats are doing the right thing by ensuring that the Post Office has a sustainable future ahead of it through investment and by brokering this deal with Royal Mail.

“Labour left Royal Mail in a terrible mess and it is Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government who have stopped closures and put Royal Mail and the Post Office on a secure footing. Our plans mean that we will not see the kind of planned closures that devastated local communities under the previous Government, when treasured Post Offices in Alexandra, Highgate, Wood Green and Stroud Green were closed.”

Local Liberal Democrat Communities spokesperson Cllr Nigel Scott adds:

“Post Offices are a vital part of our communities, and residents were rightly outraged at Labour’s massacre of post offices in Haringey back in 2008.

“Our post offices locally are well used and much loved, and I’m delighted that Liberal Democrats in Government are supporting and investing in the Post Office, to transform its future.

“This is great news for Haringey and for local residents who treasure their local post offices.”