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21st January 2008
Burnley MP Kitty Ussher has asked the people of Burnley and surrounding villages to join her campaign to fight planned post office closures and get the best possible post office services in the area.
On Monday the Post Office released plans to close five Post Office branches in the constituency and Kitty has pledged to lead the public consultation on the matter. The affected branches are Cheapside Padiham Road, Piccadilly Road, Parliament Street, Walk Mill Cliviger and the Hapton branch. The consultation will run for several weeks.
Kitty has already spoken to senior managers at Post Office Ltd to express her concerns regarding the proposals and her office will be holding an urgent meeting on Wednesday this week to discuss the issues further. She will shortly be issuing a formal response to the consultation on behalf of her constituents.
The Post Office, which is part of the Royal Mail group but is meant to operate on its own profits, receives a large Government subsidy but because of the changing way in which people live their lives it has been making a massive loss on its branch network. That means that some branches have to close. However local MP Kitty Ussher has promised to lead the fight against any closures if the local people in that area oppose them.
Kitty Ussher MP said,
“I am very concerned by what is being proposed and am determined to fight hard for our local communities, just as I did for the last round of closures in 2004. The Post Office has told me that they will listen to the public and if we put forward valid reasons why a local branch should not close then they will consider it.
“For example I do not believe that Hapton people should have to get an infrequent bus to Padiham to access a local post office and I will be making this point very strongly. I urge people to let me know what they think about the planned closures in their areas so that I can represent their views in the strongest possible terms in my response to the consultation.
“I believe everyone should have easy access to Post Office services and will fight tooth and nail to achieve this.
“I will be writing to people in the affected areas this week with how they can help further but anyone can get involved. If you want to be part of the consultation please contact my office on 01282 450840 and I will send you the survey for you to fill in. I will then use that information to fight the changes with the best possible information. Working together I believe we can maintain the best possible Post Office services here in the Burnley area”
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