Rossendale: 'Don’t stamp out our post offices'

The future of a number of Valley post offices has been thrown up in the air following the government's announcement that around 2,500 branches will close in the next two years - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Postmasters across Rossendale face an uncertain future following Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling's Commons announcement last Thursday that a fifth of the nation's network is to close.

A clearer picture should emerge following meetings between Valley postmasters and the Post Office Ltd pegged for the coming months.

Mr Darling argued that new technology and changing lifestyles were resulting in the entire network running with unsustainable weekly losses of £4M.

But Jackie Oakes, of Stacksteads Post Office said that, despite systematic changes in services such as pensions, her business had never been more vital.

She said: 'I'm still as busy as ever; we were a bit surprised as we thought that we would be less busy when the pension books went but I think people are more aware now of the banking services we offer and they make a point of supporting the Post Office service.'

There will be around 60 area-specific proposals conducted before a period of public consultation is launched; the final decision will be made by Post Office Ltd.

Jackie explained that Valley postmasters were currently in the dark over what would ultimately happen and were nervously awaiting news from the parent company.

She added: 'Basically all we know is that if they keep to the three-mile distance rule between post offices they could close us, Lea Mill and Britannia and that will be a catastrophe.

'The timescale is the next 18 months, but 18 months ago when they said they would close 2,000 post offices there was such a furore that they had a public consultation, yet here we are now and they are saying the same thing.

'All the postmasters have been invited to a meeting in the middle of June, when they may learn more, but at the moment there is nobody we can contact to clarify anything, so we will just have to wait until then.

'On a personal level, I live on the premises so this is really important to me.'

If government subsidy cuts cause local post office closures, can local MP Janet Anderson really justify approving paying the EU an extra £2.5 billion every year - much more than would be needed to keep local lifeline post offices open?

That would hardly be a responsible course of action on behalf of her constituents. Especially since the EU hasn't been able to get its accounts approved by auditors for twelve years in a row, so we're unlikely to find out how the majority of that £2.5bn extra EU payment gets spent.

Only holding her seat by a highly marginal 3,676 votes, Ms Anderson had better consider very carefully how voting to approve the EU budget deal would look to local voters denied essential public services that could have been saved with a little more financial support.