Post Office closures a sham

Author: Daily Mail - Nov 12, 2009

Labour railroaded the closure of 2,500 Post Offices with 'sham' consultations and 'a real lack of concern' for the impact on people's lives, a damning report from MPs will say today.

The report, from the Public Accounts Committee, said the brief consultation held into each closure was nothing more than 'a piece of window dressing'.

People who complained about the controversial closures were 'ignored' despite the devastating affect on villages, towns and cities across Britain.

'An important factor angering local people about the consultation process was a feeling that whatever they said, nothing would change,' said the report.

Fewer than 20 per cent of people even knew that a consultation was taking place in the early stages, the committee found.

Despite the fact that a post office may have been supporting the last shop in a village, 'this did not always prevent closure', it added.

Around 190,000 people submitted their views, but many felt they were 'not being listened to properly' or that 'the decision had already been made', the report said.

Edward Leigh, Tory MP and chairman of the committee, accused the Government of having a ruthless attitude to the 'distress' and 'upheaval' caused by the closures.

LibDem business spokesman John Thurso said: 'It is typical of this government that their sham consultations have steamrollered the views of local people and showed a flagrant disregard for the many excluded from the process.'

Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Far too often, Government consultations are actually a pretence of listening to the people.'

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