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Post Office closure consultation was a "sham"

David Evennett has expressed his concerns following claims published in a report by Consumer Focus that consultations into Post Office closures were deeply flawed and ineffective.

The report, entitled “Seen and Heard? Consumer Engagement in the Post Office Closure Programme”, and published on Tuesday 9 February, alleged that while Post Office Ltd received around 190,000 submissions to consultations, and Postwatch received a further 15,000, as many as 2.7million people made their views known through petitions, public meetings, letters to MPs and via newspaper campaigns. However, only 1 in 13 directly contributed to the formal decision-making process.

The report said that as a result, there were “missed opportunities to obtain valuable local knowledge of how cutbacks would affect communities, and many consumers were left feeling that the consultation process was a sham”.

Commenting on the report, Mr Evennett said “I am very concerned about the report’s findings. It appears to confirm what I believed all along – that these closures were being rammed through by the Government without listening to the evidence submitted.

“Labour has closed nearly half of Bexley’s Post Offices since 2001, despite widespread opposition from local people”.