Don't blame us, says Brown

Gordon Brown has rejected charges that the Government is responsible for the closure threat to Shropshire's post offices.

The Prime Minister said there was a clear appeals process for protesters to follow, which could lead to them taking their case right to the top - to Post Office chairman Allan Leighton.

And he said people in Shropshire who see their post offices close should be able to take advantage of mobile post offices which would be introduced in rural areas.

Speaking about the closure programme at 10 Downing Street last night, Mr Brown told the Shropshire Star: "These are decisions not being made by the Government. They are being made by the Post Office.

"I don't think you should confuse a situation where the Post Office is in charge of the network, not the Government.

"We want to see a thriving post office service in every part of the country, and we want particularly to bear in mind the needs of the rural community.

"But this is a decision that's been made by the Post Office itself.

"They have said to us they need money from us to enable them to carry out a programme which will cost us £1.7 billion over the next few years. Remember when there were thousands of closures under the Conservatives,

"Government money was never provided for any transitional help or any support for the existing system. We are providing £1.7 billion to help these changes in a way that's more sensitive to the needs of the people, and we are continuing the annual network subsidy until 2011."

Mr Brown said there were options for communities to run post offices themselves or to set up services in village halls, for instance, but he acc- epted these were not always viable.

"We are creating 500 new outreach services and some of the post offices you are talking about in your area will benefit from the outreach services - basically that's mobile post offices," said the Prime Minister.

Special report by London Editor John Hipwood