HC Deb 20 December 1972 vol 848 cc1306-7
5. Mr. Madel

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications how many sub-post offices were closed in November 1972.

Sir J. Eden

This is a matter for the Post Office, and I regret that I do not have the information for which my hon. Friend asks.

Mr. Madel

My right hon. Friend will be aware of the great resentment in Dunstable at the Post Office's decision to close the Downs sub-post office. Is he aware that the proposal to close main post offices in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard on Saturday afternoons as from February 1973 means that there will be four sub-post offices open on Saturday afternoons in Leighton Buzzard, and three in Dunstable? Given that Dunstable is the larger town, will my right hon. Friend look again at the closure of the Downs sub-post office? I think that as the larger town we are entitled to have more sub-post offices open, especially on Saturday afternoons.

Sir J. Eden

I am aware that my hon. Friend has made vigorous representations to the Post Office since it made known the decision to close the sub-office in question, and that he has received a full explanation of the reasons behind it. I well understand the strength of local feeling in such cases, but the Post Office Act 1969 makes it clear that the nature and scale of counter services in a given locality are management matters for the Post Office, and therefore it would be wrong for me to intervene.

Mr. Golding

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there has been much concern at the closing of Knighton sub-post office, in my constituency, and that that concern is as much about the lack of consultation and the procedures gone through as about the loss of facilities for pensioners to draw their old-age pension benefits?

Sir J. Eden

I am sure that the Post Office will take note of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question, but it is the practice of the Post Office to consult local interests before closing any of its offices. As for the latter part of the hon. Gentleman's question, arrangements of that kind are more directly a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services.

Mr. Selwyn Gummer

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that although it is a management matter for the Post Office, sub-post offices provide an important Government service in helping old-age pensioners to draw their pension, and that in places like my own constituency of Lewisham, West it is becoming increasingly difficult, because old-age pensioners have to travel long distances to draw their pensions? The Government cannot just say that it is a management matter for the Post Office.

Sir J. Eden

The Government do not just say that. I just say that arrangements for the payment of pensions, family allowances and such matters are in the first instance questions for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services.