As the economy slips into a recession, compounded by a decade of dismal fiscal management by Gordon Brown, the Government has announced that it will inflict further hardship on local businesses by closing four post offices in Wyre Forest.
Despite valiant efforts by local campaigners, and Mark Garnier's campaign to reduce overall local closures from 4 to just two post offices, it seems that local opinion is to be ignored and the proposed 4 local closures will go ahead. This will leave just 19 in the district and follows a succession of closures over recent years.
Post Offices Ltd announced early September that the four post offices in question were to be subject to a period of consultation. That period ended on the 7th October, and just three weeks later, the Post Office had considered the thousands of letters, petitions, submissions and appeals to stop the closures and decided that, in Worcestershire, not one of them had any merit at all. Accordingly, all post offices due to close in Worcester will close. No deadline for closure has been set, but it looks like their remaining life can be measured in weeks.
Mark Garnier, who first alerted Wyre Forest residents to the threat of closure in May 2007, said: "I think the haste in which the submissions have been processed means that the Post Office had no intention of ever paying attention to the views of Wyre Forest residents.
"I am appalled that Gordon Brown considers further service cuts a good idea when people are losing their jobs as a result of his fiscal and regulatory mismanagement. At a time like this, the government should be supporting businesses; not closing them.
Commenting on the petitions, Mark added: "I would like to thank everyone who signed all the petitions - not just mine, but the ones collected by all the political parties and activists, and the local post masters as well. This shows a huge coming together of Wyre Forest residents with a single cause. It is all the more disappointing that Gordon Brown's administration shows such contempt for public opinion."