---

Post Office Restructuring

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. If the only post office is in a supermarket, it is taking money away from local shops. However, it is important to note that supermarkets get taken over by other companies and that can have knock-on effects. The same arguments that apply to Dunoon apply to Campbeltown, where two of the town's three post offices are on the hit list and the only remaining post office is in a supermarket. Pensioners will have further to go to collect their pension, local businesses will suffer and there are also doubts—as in Dunoon—about whether the remaining post office will be able to cope, because there are often long queues at present. Closing two of the three post offices in the town will obviously add to the queues. I doubt whether the Post Office has done serious analysis on whether the remaining post office can cope. In Helensburgh, another town in my constituency, the East Princes street post office, a very busy and profitable business, is on the hit list. I cannot see how closing it makes any sense. Helensburgh has a population of more than 10,000 and is therefore considered as urban under the Government's definition, under which 95 per cent. of the total urban population of the UK must be within 1 mile of a post office. Yet closing East Princes street post office will leave a large proportion of the east end of Helensburgh more than a mile from the town's main post office. I am not sure whether the Post Office is aware of it, but there are plans for substantial extra house building at the east end of the town, meaning that a much greater proportion of the town's population will be more than 1 mile away.