In response to Exmouth post office closure sparks fears for vulnerable residents she writes:

During my interview with the BBC reporter which was screened on 28th September about the closure of the Post Offices, I commented on the deplorable quality of the contracts which the Department of Business and Trade had drawn up with franchisees of the Post Office. How was it possible for a company to walk away from its responsibility to run a vital public service and give barely six weeks notice of the store closure? Additionally, It seems that there was no oversight of W H Smith’s quality of service when managers were instructed by Head Office to divert Post Office staff to work on the shop floor when there were staff shortages, leaving customers without post office services sometimes for several days at a time. Where were the penalty clauses for failure to deliver post office services five and half days a week? Furthermore,why was there no requirement to give at least a year’s notice that the store and therefore the post office would close, thus enabling alternative arrangements to be made to continue the post office service?

This failed privatisation of the post office has cast a long shadow over towns up and down the country. This is not a little local difficulty; over 170 W H Smith outlets took on the franchise for the post office and now many towns throughout the UK will lose their vital post office services.

I think the Labour Government needs to take control of this situation created by the previous administration and renationalise all the post offices which should never have been farmed out to a failing retails outlet in the first place.

Kate Wilcox