Cheadle Liberal Democrats demands for the Government to come clean over their post office hit list

10.19.40am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 2nd May 2007

Mark challenges Government to come clean on post office closure plans

Local Mark Hunter MP, and the Liberal Democrats in Cheadle have challenged the Government to come clean and publish their post offices hit list.

The government's consultation has finished and a list has been compiled of post offices threatened with closure. The government were supposed to respond to their consultation by the end of March, but have shelved their response until after the local elections.

7 post offices have closed in Cheadle between 1999 and 2006. Under the governments plans an average of three to four more post offices per constituency will close, but no definite figures can be known until the government publish their hit list.

The Liberal Democrats are the only party to have a plan to save the post office. The Liberal Democrat five-point plan would see:

• £2 billion invested in post office branches;

• New branches opening where needed;

• Government services continuing to be available at the Post Office;

• The Post Office freed from Royal Mail restrictions to let it develop new business;

• A new legal requirement for the Government to maintain the local Post Office network.

Local Liberal Democrat MP Mark Hunter said; "The government should publish their post office hit list before the local elections on May 3rd. This is the last chance people in Cheadle will have to tell the government what they think of their plans to close at least 2,500 post offices across the country. We do not know what post offices in Cheadle are under threat as the government has not published their post office hit list. Local people should have the chance to voice their concerns over the government's closure programme."

"The Conservative party are no better. Under their watch they let 3,500 post offices close and 10 years later they still don't have a plan to stop more local post offices closing. Between them, Labour and the Conservatives will soon have closed at least 10,000 post offices. We are the only party that has a plan to stop the post office closures and bring new business to the post office and services to local communities."