---

Post Office Restructuring

I take the hon. Lady's point, which brings me to St. Mary Bourne, a resourceful village that raised money and built a village shop and post office 10 years ago. That is a community shop of exactly the type that has been mentioned, but it is now going to be closed. Outreach has been negotiated, which means that the post office will remain in the same shop, but the strong room in which the post office was located must be destroyed and relocated, at some cost, alongside the counter. Nevertheless, Mr. Rod Sutcliffe has negotiated a skilful and successful outreach deal. I have also had a petition from a small and popular rural post office in Linkenholt and another from the post office in St Giles Road in Tadley. I visited all the post offices except one. One post office has, at the Post Office's request, spent a large sum investing in a strong room: it completed that about a year ago but is now about to be closed. Two neighbouring villages—Goodworth Clatford and Anna Valley—are going to lose their post offices. If I had to single out one example, although it is invidious to do so because I do not think that any of these post offices should close, the most effective campaign has been run by Goodworth Clatford, where Richard Green has headed a successful campaign called SOCPO: Save Our Clatford Post Office. Taking up the point made by the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Derek Wyatt) and the hon. Member for Stafford, my point is this: two of the three local authorities in my local area are interested in saving the post offices. I have had a dialogue with Mr. Nickolls and asked whether, if the local authority wants to rescue a post office, this can be done. The answer was that it is difficult but, in theory, yes. Perhaps the local authorities place a higher value on keeping these institutions going than do the Government. Can local authorities find the information that they need from the post office? No. They need to know how much they have to put in to keep the post office open, but they cannot get that information. I hope that we get at least one thing out of this debate: the Minister should instruct the Post Office that, where a parish, district or county council, in good faith, wants to open negotiations with the Post Office to keep a post office open, it should be given the necessary information. If the Government are serious about devolving decision making and empowering local communities, it would be monstrous if a centrally driven programme led to the closure of popular local institutions, even though local people were prepared to put up the money so that the Government were not out of pocket. I hope that when the Minister replies to this debate he will at least accede to that request so that negotiations can get underway to stop the unnecessary closure of successful and popular post offices.