TONGE: "NO FIGURES, NO CLOSURES!"

12.00.00am GMT Mon 27th Jan 2003

The Post Office has declined to give Dr Jenny Tonge, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, figures for customer numbers for the two post offices it proposes to close.

Dr Tonge wrote on January 6th to ask for customer numbers for the sub-post offices at Kew Green and Popham Gardens, both of which are under threat of closure.

She has received a response from Rob Fraser, the Assistant Consultation Manager which says: "Figures for customer numbers are not available for these branches and I can confirm we do not disclose any information regarding takings or profitability."

Dr Tonge said: "I am absolutely astonished by this response. If the Post Office doesn't have figures for customer numbers, how can it possibly justify the claim that these two branches are under-used?"

"In the original letter to me of December 16, warning me of the impending closure, Mr Drew McBride cited 'falling customer numbers' as the reason. Yet now they are telling me they don't have these numbers!