Reprieve for local Post Offices

3.43.21pm GMT Thu 13th Nov 2008

Tom Brake, Lib Dem MP for Carshalton and Wallington, has welcomed the news today that the Government have abandoned plans which might have seen billions worth of business taken away from Post Offices.

Tom said, "Thousands of people locally who have signed petitions to 'Save our Post Offices' or filled in postcards calling on the Government to give the Post Office Card Account (POCA) contract to the Post Office will be breathing a sigh of relief. If local post offices had lost this business, many more offices locally would have had to shut.

"I would like to thank everyone who signed the petitions or returned the postcards. People power has safeguarded the future of our post offices."

Tom added, "It is baffles me why the Government has wasted time and money and caused panic by risking taking this business away from the Post Office.

"This could all have been avoided if, as the Liberal Democrats have long argued, the Post Office Card Account had never been put out to tender in the first place."