| Local Lib Dem Candidate commends Council motion to stop Post Offices closures - 20th Feb '08 |
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Since 1999, twenty Post Offices have been closed in Bath & North East Somerset. The Government’s new closure programme will mean the loss of another 2500 local Post Offices across Britain and several are expected to close in this area. 
Lib Dem Gail Coleshill believes the Government should be doing more to keep Post Offices open, not closing them.
The list
of Post Offices under threat will be published on 26 February, but as the next
Council meeting is on 19 February, Councillors have tabled a pre-emptive motion
calling for the Council to oppose closures and respond to the consultation
accordingly. The motion also calls for the support of local MPs’ to be sought
and for the Council to look into services it could provide through the Post
Office network Liberal Democrats oppose closures of small Post Offices
especially in rural areas where they provide much more than a Post Office
service.
Gail Coleshill, Lib Dem Parliamentary
spokesperson for North East
Somerset speaks for all the people living in
villages and small communities who rely on the local post offices;
“I commend this council motion to
preserve the existing post offices in Bath and North
East Somerset. Post masters in North East Somerset have
already adapted to the reduction in services that the Government has imposed by
combining with shops or pubs or even fish and chip shops. Local people need MORE
local post offices not more closures.”
“Unfortunately I am not convinced that the Government is listening to
local people. Writhlington, Westfield, and Cross Keys closed in Radstock in
spite of local campaigns”
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