Wednesday 13 February 2008

Redcar Lib Dems leading the battle to stop Labour’s Post Office closures


North East Lib Dem Euro MEP Fiona Hall at the new Roseberry Shopping Centre, Redcar campaigning with, left to right, Ian Swales, Cllr Chris Abbott, Fiona Hall, Pat Swales, for the retention of the Post Office that had been situated in the now demolished Roseberry Square.

Ian Swales, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Redcar is leading the battle to stop Labour’s post office closures.

Ian said "2500 post offices face the axe across Britain. Here in Redcar constituency 2 more post offices face closure. Lazenby and Park Avenue, Redcar are in the latest list announced on the 12th February. The only bright spot is that Roseberry Square, Redcar remains on the retained list so we hope we have won the battle to get one reinstated there.

“Post offices play a vital role in our local communities. These closures will hit local people, especially older residents, very hard indeed.”

The Liberal Democrats are fighting the closures. They are gathering a petition locally to be presented at Downing Street.

“Labour and Conservative governments have decimated our post office network. Only the Liberal Democrats have a plan to save our local post offices and to open new post offices when needed, said Ian Swales.”

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

a pity you didn't lead a campaign against closures of youth facilities, finnegan hall, the raising of council tax above inflation, over spend on unadopted roads wasting millions....oh yeah thats right, that was you wasn't it.

also, isn't lib dem policy to mprivatise the post office anyway?

Chris Abbott said...

Sorry to disappoint you Anonymous but there were no closures of youth facilities under the Coalition only improvements.

It was our plan to replace James Finegan Hall with a much better state of the art, brand new facility down the road at Eston City Learning Centre. Labour bitterly opposed it and so did a group of alleged users who once the election was over suddenly had a miraculous change of mind.

Get real about the Council Tax. Labour are having to do the same and are making exactly the same explanations as we did, that they previously claimed were untrue. The only difference is that in addition to raising the Council Tax by 4.9% (well above inflation) they are making over £5m in cut to vital public services.

The plan to spend around £250,000 per year on improving unadopted roads to bring them up to adoptable standard was an excellent policy. It has made life better for hundreds of local residents, improved the environment and has made 19 roads safer. I wish we were able to do more.

Liberal Democrats would give a real investment of £2 billion in the post office, would increase the services offered at local post office branches and improve the network so that every community that needs a post office gets one.
We are the only party with a fully-funded plan to save the post office, give it a long-term future and not just manage its decline.
Our plan would see:
· £2 billion invested in post office network;
· 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.

Anonymous said...

When you say "freed from Royal Mail restrictions" do you in fact mean freed from all restrictions including state ownership?

When you say "a new legal requirement....." do you mean enhancing the power of a service, that would be privatised under the Lib Dems, so it can act against any government intervention (that could be universally beneficial), and yet reap the ‘rewards’ [sic] of the private sector?

Chris Abbott said...

See: http://www.libdems.org.uk/commerce/issues/

Our plan keeps the Post Office Ltd in the public sector and enables Royal Mail employees to get a share in their company through a radical employee share ownership Trust, similar to the John Lewis Partnership. Royal Mail will take a new ownership model, with the sale of some of its shares providing the investment needed by our post offices.

The Liberal Democrat plan would enable us to –

Open new post office branches where they are needed
Keep the Post Office in the public sector
Make the Royal Mail into a successful company, with new investment freedoms
Give Royal Mail staff a guaranteed stake in their company through employee share holding and participation
Protect and improve the service to customers that provides a daily delivery at a uniform price across the country

You can find out about the proposals in more details by reading our background paper on the policy http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/policies/RoyalMail2006.pdf.

Anonymous said...

i've read the "orange book" chris, i know exactly what lib dem proposals are. tory policies with yellow badges on. That's why your quite good bed fellows, especially in your recent coalition. its laughable that you try and pull the wool over peoples eyes.

Chris Abbott said...

We have set out what the Liberal Democrats policy is. The Orange Book is not policy it was the views of a number of individuals at that point in time.

Why not provide some constructive comments and identify yourself as a sign of good faith. The fact that you hide behind the anonymous tag indicates to us that you are the one trying to 'pull the wool over peoples eyes.'