WHERE WILL THE AXE FALL FOR ST ALBANS POST OFFICES?

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 9th Jun 2008

Hundreds of residents have already signed our petition to save local post offices in St Albans

The long-awaited announcement of which St Albans area sub-post offices will be for the chop comes next week on Tuesday 17th June. This is when the Post Office will announce closure plans for South Herts, South Essex and Buckinghamshire - the area which covers the St Albans parliamentary constituency. Harpenden sub-post offices are in a different administrative region and will not know their fate until 8th July. Both announcements were delayed until after the local elections on May 1st.

"We don't yet know which local post office branches will be for the chop", said Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans.

"2,500 are slated for closure nationally in this latest round of closures. That could mean three or four branches in our district. We will only have six weeks to campaign to save them. Sadly we know from the history of successive Conservative and Labour governments that this is a never-ending process of salami-slicing, once the political will has gone to maintain a service which is of vital benefit to local communities and local businesses.

Sandy pointed out that St Albans has already lost branches at Abbey Avenue, Whitecroft, Stanhope Road, Beaconsfield Road, Hatfield Road and High Oaks in the last ten years alone.

"When a branch closes, it is bad enough for local people - often with immobility or accessibility issues. But nearby shops can also suffer as Post Office customers no longer come to their local parade. And with more and more businesses operating from home, longer journeys to a post office counter and longer waits for service at a smaller number of branches can have a really negative economic impact as well."

"Hundreds of residents have already signed our petition to save local post offices in St Albans," Sandy said. "Once we know which particular branches are for the chop, we will be stepping up our campaign. Other areas have been successful in changing decisions. It is important that we fight against the constant drip-drip of attacks on the viability of our local communities."

ENDS

For more information, please call Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317