Letter HE - Urban Post Office subsidies

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 16th Aug 2004

Dear Editor,

The news that the Government is to extend the subsidy available to Rural post offices until 2008 is to be welcomed, but it does nothing to address the problems of small urban post offices which suffer from the same problems.

Successive Labour and Conservative governments have presided over the demise of the post office network by introducing a whole series of measures designed to reduce post office use. As a result business has gone down, post offices are being closed and it is the elderly and those on benefits who suffer most. Torbay is now seeing the result with proposals to close 11 post offices.

People living in urban suburbs often have the same problems of access as those in the country - no public transport and the nearest post office out of reach. It is time the Government recognised this by offering subsidies to these urban areas. The post office offers many services both social and commercial which many people rely upon. If we continue to just look at commercial viability it will be the elderly and disadvantaged that will suffer - as usual!

Yours sincerely,

Mike Treleaven

( Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate - Totnes Constituency)