Whilst I was delighted that Royal Mail acknowledged that their selection of the Hardwick Road Post Office in Pontefract was flawed and removed that branch from the closure programme 63 Post Offices in West Yorkshire were still targeted for closure.
The local Post Office at Upper Altofts is one such that has been serving the community for years but is now due to close.
The action group invited their local MP to the Lea Brigg Working Mens Club this evening to talk about options and I went along with Richard Wakefield and Richard Molloy to listen. In the event the MP was challenged about his part in the closure process and his voting record when he blocked the vote to suspend the closures and review the consultation process on the 19th March. This has been brought to the public's attention and many of the more than 100 people in attendance picked up on that theme and expressed their feelings and concerns.
In fairness to the MP this was always going to be difficult. It was made especially more so when he basically did a Post Offices cost a lot of money, people don't use them and people do not want to pay the taxes that it takes to keep them open.
He kept quoting the £1.75 billion subsidy that his government has promised to pay to keep the 10,000 survivors open after the the 2500 targetted do close.
I had decided to sit quietly as a guest but felt that he was using the sums to paint a difficult picture when in fact per capita contribution is about £3.75 per man, women and child each year to keep the existing network open. Or in my case one of the gallons of petrol that I buy each year pays my tax contribution to support local post offices for that year.
I made the point and was then announced/denounced by a fellow local but Labour councillor as the Deputy Leader of Conservatives on the Council and not a local to Altofts. This did not have the impact that he hoped for, I suspect he was hoping that people would see me as an enemy in some way intruding. Nope they did not see it that way at all. Their MP was the red faced one that was there to account for his actions or lack of them.
I made the point that regardless of location and politics I had been fighting to keep Post Offices open as a public service and sat down, I made my point and others picked it up. Subsequently a number of people present thanked me for coming along and putting my point of view.
Those there also knew that I was one of three leaders of local political groups who had signed the WMDC document contesting the closure and also thanked me for that action.
Ed Balls constituents will not have the opportunity to use their vote to show how they feel that he has treated them, he is bound for a safe Labour seat at Rothwell, however his wife is hoping to replace him as MP for Normanton,Pontefract and Castleford.
I think some of the folk there this evening have long memories. We shall see.
