Wera welcomes government Post Office U-turn

4.27.00pm GMT Wed 19th Nov 2008

Wera Hobhouse, Norden ward Councillor and Heywood and Middleton Parliamentary Candidate, has welcomed the recent u-turn by the government to renew the Post Office Card Account (POCA) contract. The government had threatened to give the contract to a private company, which, according to the National Federation of Sub Post Masters could have resulted in the closure of another 3000 Post Offices across the country.

Councillor Hobhouse said:

"I don't know if we can call this announcement a victory, because hundreds of Post Offices across the region continue to close. However it is a welcome development. The POCA provides a vital service to millions of people up and down the country."

"Over recent months I, along with my Liberal Democrat colleagues, have been campaigning to stop the closure of our Post Offices and when I then discovered that there was a plan to even further decimate the Post Office network I couldn't believe it. We ran a petition to stop the taking away of the POCA contract and had a big response."

"We can only hope it shows that the government has finally taken notice of the massive amount of support for Post Offices which provide a hugely important community service."