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Minister battles to save closure threat Pontefract post office
Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper is fighting to save a Post Office earmarked for the axe as part of a controversial closure programme agreed by the Government.
Ms Cooper, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, says the residents of Pontefract are being "unfairly treated" by the decision to close Hardwick Road post office.
The Pontefract and Castleford MP is one of at least seven cabinet ministers who have campaigned against specific post office closures.
The Tories today accused her of "rank hypocrisy".
Ministers have agreed to the Post Office closing 2,500 branches, including 63 offices across West Yorkshire.
They insist the cull is needed because the network is haemorrhaging 500,000 a day.
But Ms Cooper says shutting Hardwick Road breaches the rules the Post Office is supposed to follow when drawing up changes to the network.
Under access criteria laid down by the government, 95 per cent of the population in urban areas will be within one mile of a branch after the closure programme.
However, Ms Cooper has calculated that the closure of Hardwick Road would result in around 20 per cent of Pontefract residents being more than a mile from a branch.
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She has now written to Post Office bosses and is also urging constituents to contact the Post Office directly.
She said: "All political parties have recognised the network can't continue at its current size. But changes need to meet national guidelines on access and be fair to all areas.
"The Post Office proposal to close Hardwick Road in Pontefract goes against those guidelines as it will leave a fifth of the town over a mile from a post office branch."
But Conservative shadow minister for postal affairs, Charles Hendry MP said: "It is unbelievable that Yvette Cooper who, along with other Cabinet ministers who decided that 2,500 post offices must close, is campaigning to save one in her own constituency.
"It is Nimbyism and rank hypocrisy of the worst kind."
Public consultation on the plans closes on June 23.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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