Islington Tribune - News: Politicians row as threat to shut post office looms

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 1 June 2007

Bridget Fox and East Dunbartonshire Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson, who are part of a national campaign to save post offices

Politicians row as threat to shut post office looms

Lib Dems accused of campaigning to save PO they want to sell off

A POLITICAL row has erupted over the future of one of the borough’s biggest and busiest post offices.
Lib Dems have accused the government of wishing to shut Essex Road post office as part of a national package of 2,500 proposed closures.
But Labour claims the post office is part of a portfolio of 220 buildings the Lib Dem council is due to sell off to developers.
Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner Bridget Fox, who led a demonstration in Essex Road against the threatened closure, said: “Islington residents have already lost 10 post offices since 1999. How many more do Labour want to close?
“Gordon Brown has undermined post offices by taking away millions of pounds worth of business, such as payment of benefits and TV licences.”
She accused Islington South and Finsbury Labour MP Emily Thornberry of refusing to support a Lib Dem amendment in Parliament preventing the planned closure.
Ms Fox added: “The government says no one will be more than a mile from a post office. On that logic, pensioners from Essex Road would have to go to Hackney.
“Emily Thornberry may think it’s okay for people to ‘go the extra mile’ for the post office. Liberal Democrats do not.”
But Labour councillors have accused the Lib Dems of “hypocrisy”.
Councillor Richard Greening, deputy leader of Islington Labour group, said: “The Lib Dems are cynically playing politics with Islington’s shops.
“They say they are campaigning in Islington to save post offices, but the Lib Dem council is selling the post office off, with a huge rent increase. If anyone is putting local services such as post offices in danger, then it is the Lib Dem council.”
Meanwhile, the Royal Mail said that no decision had been made about the proposed Essex Road closure. “It’s possible but we can’t say any more than that,” a spokeswoman added.

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