Moore Urges Ministers to Support Post Office Network (Aberdeen South & North Kincardine Liberal Democrats)

Aberdeen South & North Kincardine Liberal Democrats <info@aberdeensouthlibdems.org.uk>

Moore Urges Ministers to Support Post Office Network

July 7, 2009 5:28 PM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

MP Michael Moore is urging Ministers to take action on the recommendations made in a report from a House of Commons committee on the future of the Post Office network.

Mr Moore has expressed his concern over findings from the Business and Enterprise Select Committee that government departments and local authorities have failed to make any significant use of the near-universal reach of the Post Office network to improve the level and range of services available to consumers, especially for those without access to the internet.

The report, published this morning, made a number of recommendations for the development of the Post Office network that would benefit consumers in the Borders. These measures included forcing banks in which the public is a shareholder to provide access to their services through the Post Office, and increasing the range of financial and administrative services available over the counter in rural areas.

The committee launched their investigation in December 2008, and received oral and written evidence from a range of experts in the field, including Borders postmaster Mervyn Jones, the former President of the National Federation of Subpostmasters.

Commenting, Mr Moore said:

'This Government has hacked away at the Post Office network and many Borders communities have lost out as a result.

'Customers and service providers deserve better from a Government that has failed time and again to take action to secure the long-term future of the Post Office. Ministers must recognise that the network is an essential public service, especially in rural areas like the Borders, and start treating it as such.

'Once again I pay tribute to the leading role taken by Mervyn Jones in challenging the Government's failures to support the Post Office network; this report is vindication of the efforts made by him and his colleagues'.