SHOCK FIGURES ON POST OFFICE CLOSURES

In a response directly from the Post Office, it has been confirmed that one quarter of the post offices in the Wealden constituency have closed in just three years '“ down from 35 in 2001/02 to 28 in 2004/05.

Nationally, the Post Office also admit that since 1996/97 over 4,000 sub-Post offices have closed '“ from 18,645 in 1996/97 down to 14,068 in 2004/05.

Mr Hendry, who is also the Shadow Minister responsible for the Post Office, said: "These are shocking figures which show just how steep the decline in the number of rural post offices has been.

"Worse still, we know that the ending of the Post Office Card Account, the opening of new regional Passport Offices and moves to encourage people to renew their car tax on-line will take away even more business from the post offices and will result in even more closures.

"Our Post Office network is under threat as never before."

He added: "The chief executive of the Royal Mail, Adam Crozier, recently said he only needs 4,000 post offices, in order to run the business.

"On average, that would mean the closure of 20 of the remaining 28 post offices in Wealden, which would be a disaster for our towns and rural communities.

"If that melt-down is to be prevented, the government needs to come up with a long-term strategy for the post office, to establish what its role should be and how it should be supported. At the moment, there is no sign of that."

* The number of post offices has only been collated by constituency since 2001/02. These are therefore the only figures available.