Vince Cable

The Post Office will begin consultation on a fresh round of post office closures in the Borough in February next year leading to announced closures and "public consultation" - starting with MPs - in April.

Vincent Cable MP said that the Post Office is planning to close between 1 in 5 and 1 in 6 of its remaining branches and will, in future, only be required to ensure that 95% of the urban population is within a mile of the branch. Closures will happen across Britain and our Borough is one of the last to be reviewed. This review of the network follows the big closure programme several years ago which led to five closures on either side of the borough.

Vincent Cable said that "the Post Office and the Government have been hopelessly unimaginative about using the network creatively. Government business - like social security and pension payments - has been taken away and various proposals for using the network for financial services and public information have not been followed through.

"The upshot is that those who still depend on the post offices for payments, especially pensioners, will be further disadvantaged by long journeys to collect their money. I am particularly concerned about the future of some of the post offices on the edge of my constituency, like Heathfield and Hampton Wick, which have smallish turnover and which the Post Office will find it easiest to close."