ATKINSON ATTACKED FOR 'POST OFFICE POSTURING' (Hexham Liberal Democrats)

Hexham Liberal Democrats <info@hexhamlibdems.org.uk>

ATKINSON ATTACKED FOR 'POST OFFICE POSTURING'

November 7, 2007 12:00 AM

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Hexham, Andrew Duffield, has accused Tory MP Peter Atkinson of "hypocritical hand-wringing" and shedding "crocodile tears" over Labour's continuing closure programme for post offices.

The Lib Dem challenger has called on Hexham's MP to "come clean" with voters after Mr Atkinson's latest description of the post office closure plan as a "very sad situation".

Andrew Duffield explained: "Under the last Conservative government, of which Peter Atkinson was a member, a staggering 3,500 post offices were closed. Ten years later, the Tories still don't have a plan to stop more local post offices from closing.

"Between them, Labour and the Conservatives will soon have closed at least 10,000 post offices.

"It really is the height of hypocrisy for Hexham's Tory MP to create the impression that he is on the side of local post offices when his party presided over a considerable part of their demise!

"Mr Atkinson's angst appears to be entirely self-serving. His crocodile tears do not fool Liberal Democrats. We remain the one party with a commitment to end post office closures, bringing new business and better services to local communities."

The Liberal Democrats are the only party with costed proposals to save the post office network. Their five-point plan would see:

£2 billion invested in post office branches;

New branches opening where needed;

Government services continuing to be available at the Post Office;

The Post Office freed from Royal Mail restrictions to let it develop new business;

A new legal requirement for the Government to maintain the local Post Office network.

Andrew Duffield concluded: "The time for political posturing and hypocritical hand-wringing is over. Conservatives like Peter Atkinson should have the good grace to apologise and admit that their party was wrong to allow these closures to begin in the first place.

"I would encourage people who are genuinely concerned about their local post office to support the Liberal Democrats in fighting any further Labour cuts and embrace our positive plans to put things right."