Post Office Closures disastrous for Welwyn Hatfield

3.45.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 18th Jun 2008

Sub post offices closing - now Marsden Road post office will go.

"The announcement is a real blow for Welwyn Hatfield," says Paul Zukowskyj. "This affects the elderly and vulnerable in our community, and is also an insult considering that we have just handed in 800 signatures from across the borough. Most of these were collected in an area of Hatfield strong in Labour supporters. No wonder Labour delayed the announcement until after the local elections."

"Each of the three closures will impact on the local communities affected, both residents and small businesses. In the case of Salisbury Square Post Office, it is about the further isolation of the community of East Hatfield, who now have to cross a railway line to get to a post office."

"Welwyn Garden City now has only the main post office," Paul pointed out. "The loss of Marsden Road post office will be most keenly felt by the elderly and disabled residents of the area who can't get to the town centre. The Government talks about helping local communities but in fact Labour is shrinking our local communities by centralising services. But more importantly, the loss of this post office also affects the whole community, as everyone likes to pop in to Handside when the main post office is full of long queues, and Lemsford village, for whom this is also their local post office, is also badly affected."

"This seems to have been a numbers game by the post office and the government," Paul said. "We have learnt over and over that damage to communities causes disadvantage that is difficult to repair in the longer term. There is still time to vote for Hazel Laming in Hatfield Central. Remember only the LibDems are working to retain both post offices and the Hatfield Town centre redevelopment that has been abandoned by the Tories."

ENDS

For further information please contact Paul Zukowskyj on 01707 269 491