Lib Dems slam Post Office over closures

11.53.21am GMT Thu 2nd Sep 2004

Cllr Brenda Thompson

Liberal Democrat councillors in Orpington have slammed the Post Office for ignoring consultation with local residents and pressing ahead with their plans to close Poverest and Chipperfield Road Post Offices.

Poverest Post Office, in Marion Crescent, will remain closed, as it was boarded up earlier in the year. The Post Office will publish plans of how the Post Office Chipperfield Road is to close later.

Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Chris Maines, who together with Cray Valley East Cllr Brenda Thompson organised a petition against the closure, said he was furious that the Post Office had not listened to local residents and called the consultation a sham. "The letter sent to us saying the Post Offices would close acknowledged that they had received several petitions, representations from councillors and from many, many local residents. What is the point in consulting when all opinions that they do not agree with are ignored?"

Cllr Brenda Thompson, a Liberal Democrat who represents Cray Valley East ward, said that, once again, vulnerable people in the area could suffer as a result. "The Post Office in the Tillingbourne Green area was closed a few years ago. Now the people in Poverest, where there are a large number of elderly people and families with young children, will have to go even further to use a Post Office. It is a disgrace."