The row over post office closures rumbles on with many rural offices identified for closure in spite of loud local protests.

Councillor Redvers Crooks is campaigning with me to keep our post offices open. Our Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods voted against a motion in parliament condemning post office closures, so I guess we can assume she doesn’t mind if our post offices close.

Within the Framwellgate Moor Division we have two Post Offices, one on Framwellgate Moor Front Street and one on Newton Street in Witton Gilbert. Please use them as often as possible. Bearpark no longer has a Post Office after the one on Auton Stile closed which has made it very difficult for local residents who now have to travel to Ushaw Moor or further afield.

The next round of post office closures will not now be announced until after the Unitary Elections and so we have again distributed a leaflet to residents in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Brasside and Witton Gilbert, with a petition. There has so far been a good response.

You can also sign the Lib Dem petition against the closure program on the Liberal Democrat website at http://www.libdems.org.uk/commerce/issues/. Thousands of people across Britain have already done this.

The Lib Dems are the only party to have campaigned nationally against the closures since they were announced. At a County Council meeting last week there was a recommendation to look at ways of using County Council facilities to plug the gap.

I hope whatever happens everyone will use their local post offices for as long as Labour allows us to keep them.