Post Office Closures Slammed - Brake

10.30.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 7th May 2008

Over a hundred and fifty Post office closures across London will hit the most vulnerable hardest

Tom Brake has condemned as a sham the Royal Mail's consultation on proposed Post Office closures. The outcome of the consultation is to be announced today, confirming four more Post Offices in Carshalton, Hackbridge and St Helier are to close.

Tom Brake said, 'the Royal Mail shouldn't have bothered consulting. At the beginning of this process they identified four post offices they wanted to close. And at the end of the consultation, they have confirmed these are the four that are to shut. What a waste of time and money! This consultation was nothing more than a delaying tactic to allow the Royal Mail and the Government to stall the announcement of these closures until after London elections.'

Tom Brake added, 'Even the Post Office in Seymour Road, which met many of the Post Office's criteria for staying open, is to shut.'

Post offices in Bishopsford Road, Seymour Road, Wrythe Lane and Carshalton Road will now shut. Across London as a whole, 155 Post Offices are to close with just seven out of the original 170 ear-marked for closure given a reprieve.

The current closure programme will see 2,500 post offices shut on top of the 4,000 already closed by the Labour Government and 3,500 by the previous Conservative Government.

Tom Brake is writing to the Royal Mail to challenge them to prove that they can make the proposed alternative Post Offices fully accessible for people with mobility problems.