Monday 17 March 2008

Government Minister campaigns against Government decision!


Vera Baird MP has been campaigning against the closure of Lazenby Post Office. She joins a long list of Labour Ministers campaigning locally against their own national decision to close 2,500 Post offices.

Ian Swales, the Liberal Democrats Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Redcar said:

"They should have listened to local people before taking the decision not afterwards.

"The Government is killing the post office network by withdrawing business such as TV Licenses and Car Tax, by restricting what they can do and by restricting their opening hours. Our MP should be campaigning in Parliament to save the Post office network not engaging in cynical local publicity stunts. Only the Liberal Democrats have firm plans to turn round the Post office business and rescue the network.

"Liberal Democrats in Redcar & Cleveland are campaigning against the closure of four post offices in the Borough and for the reopening of the post office in Roseberry Shopping Centre. Councillor Dunning, Leader of the Council, has been telling residents in Lazenby that the survival of their post office is the Council's priority. It seems he has already admitted defeat on the others. Labour's gimmicky campaign is phoney. They made the decision to close the post offices in the first place.

"We need all our post offices to survive and for plans to be put in place for them to prosper. Along with Fiona Hall MEP I have presented the first batch of 1000 signatures on our petition to save the post offices to Sarah Teather, MP Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise."

Sarah Teather MP, who is pictured (attached) receiving the petition from Ian Swales and Fiona Hall MEP said:

"The Government should be helping local Post Offices to develop their business rather than forcing more and more of them to go to the wall."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Labour MPs who thought the Post Office closures they voted for wouldn't effect their own constituencies are either niave, hypocrites, or NIMBYs. It will be interesting to see how Vera Baird votes in the Commons tomorrow - that's the only protest that matters.