Morgan under fire on post offices

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The First Minister has come under fire over the closure of post offices and been urged to do more to save them.

Rhodri Morgan clashed with opposition leaders, who said a third of Wales' network was on course to shut under the review proposals.

Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne said under the latest shake-up around 250 post offices were under threat.

Mr Morgan said the Welsh Assembly Government was anxious to reopen its post office development fund.

Challenged at First Minister's questions in the Senedd, he also said that a series of rate cuts for small business had been a big help to post offices.

It comes a week after the Post Office announced that 29 branches would close across Cardiff, Bridgend, the valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan as part of its UK-wide network review.

Seven days earlier, it said it had identified 25 branches across the Newport and Gwent Valleys area for possible closure as part of the same review.

The plans are part of a wider restructuring of Post Office services throughout the UK which will see about 2,500 branches - a fifth of those left in the UK - close by 2009.

The establishment of new outreach points in Chepstow and Caldicot was also announced as part of the proposals and a six-week public consultation was launched.

'Infrastructure axed'

In the Senedd on Tuesday, Mr Bourne AM said that 324 post offices had already gone since devolution.

He claimed it was "objectionable and offensive" the assembly government wanted to reclaim business development grants from post offices that were closing.

He urged Mr Morgan to raise the future of the post office network with the new Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy.

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mike German compared the threat to post offices with the Beeching railway cuts of the 1960s.

He said: "Here we have an infrastructure that's being axed for the same reason - profitability over their social inclusion role," he said.

The closure of 29 south east Wales branches was announced last week

Mr Morgan said that post offices had to compete with other providers for services such as distributing benefits and pensions.

"They have to learn how to win more of those competitions on a competitive basis against alternative providers," he said.

His administration has complained to Westminster that running down the network's business was hitting post offices in poor areas hardest, said Mr Morgan.

He added: "That's the point we have been making time and time again. We have not had satisfactory answers."