Last updated 21:19, Tuesday, 25 March 2008

The naming today of the 2,500 Post Offices to close across the UK will send fear through many communities and rage through others.

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For those living in the countryside, the post office is a vital part of village life.

And for some communities, the loss of their post office, could also mean the end of their local shop.

Some rural areas in Cumbria are already struggling to survive as school rolls decline, village pubs and shops shut and bus services are reduced and withdrawn.

Losing the post office would be a major blow.

Government whip Tony Cunningham today launched a fierce attack on the closures, branding the criteria used by Post Office bosses as “wildly inaccurate”.

The Workington MP has vowed to help his constituents fight local closures and has offered his help to any other communities threatened by the loss of the Post Office.

He said: “Having seen the criteria used by the Post Office for closures, it is wildly inaccurate.

“I don’t believe the figures and if communities want to fight to save their post office, I’m up for it.

“I have already arranged to meet Post Office representatives to discuss the criteria.”

He said there will be a consultation process before closure and added: “I’m more than happy to fight with anybody who wants to fight against the closure of their local post office.”

The Government announced last year that 2,500 of the country’s 14,000 branches must close to preserve the network's £150 million-a-year subsidy and cut its estimated losses of £4 million a week.

This morning the final hit list was revealed.

The plans have proved deeply divisive, with tens of thousands of people backing calls to save their local branches, signing petitions and even marching to London in protest.

The Conservatives are to put the matter to a vote in an Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons tomorrow .

It will be the first chance MPs have had to debate the closure programme which was approved by the Cabinet last May.

The result of the ballot is unlikely to affect the Government’s position or dent the programme of closures, but it could provide an embarrassing snub to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

A Commons motion laid late last year which criticised plans to close the post offices was signed by 110 MPs, including 35 Labour politicians.

Mr Cunningham said he would not be voting on Wednesday.

He argued: “It is a political stunt by the Tories.

“If you vote ‘yes’ they close; if you vote ‘no’ they close.

“I will be fighting in the areas I need to fight in.”

Carlisle’s Eric Martlew has written to Cumbria County Council chief executive Peter Stybelski suggesting the authority follows the example of Essex, where the local authority is taking over threatened offices and running them itself.

He would not be drawn on how he would vote and said: “I’m sure I will vote, but you will have to wait and see how I will vote.”

Copeland MP Jamie Reed was unavailable to comment.

Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean is expecting almost all MPs to follow the party line tomorrow as both Labour and Conservative groups impose a three-line whip.

He claimed the Government was deliberately taking business such as television licences and car tax away from the Post Offices to make them seem uneconomical and create a reason for closure.

And he accused Labour MPs of double standards, adding: “At local level, each MP campaigns against the post offices being closed, but they will vote to support the Government.”

And he said the Post Office was deliberately announcing closure targets little by little.

He said: “They are announcing them batch by batch to prevent us coming together in a national campaign.”

“It is one thing towing the party line, but this is a big issue throughout the country, especially in rural areas,” he said .

“MPs of whatever political persuasion have to think long and hard about how they vote,”

“I know there might be a party line to take, but that might be secondary to the needs and wishes of their constituents.”

Paul Braithwaite, political officer for the Cumbria and North Lancashire branch of the Communication Workers Union, urged the politicians not to slavishly follow party orders.

He warned that closing a rural post office that was also a village store could signal the end for rural communities.

“It could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. They could be used by elderly people who can’t get into town, while closing those in urban areas on a housing estate could be equally devastating.”

More than 2,000 people have signed a petition demanding that post offices in Carlisle should be saved from closure.

John Stevenson, a city councillor and Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, distributed the petition in all of the city’s 20-plus post offices.

Many fear that the hit-list of 2,500 offices is only the first wave of closures and that more will follow in years to come.

Voluntary Action Cumbria, a group which supports some of the county’s most isolated communities, has already held talks with parish councillors and rural residents to see how they can help affected areas.

Chief executive Roger Roberts is gloomy about the effects of the post office decision and the future of country living in Cumbria.

He said: “It all looks very depressing, to be honest.

“We just seem to see a steady cutting back in service provision.

“I wonder how much the Post Office will actually save by making these cuts as they are proposing to put in quite expensive mobile services to cover counter closures.”

A spokesman for Cumbria County Council has said there are no plans to follow the lead of Essex, as suggested by Mr Martlew, because the authority does not believe that approach is sustainable.

But it is providing some help and hope through the Cumbria Rural Infrastructure Programme (CRISP).

This provided a grant for a Post Office to be operated from the village shop at Nenthead, near Alston.

The shutters came down at the village PO last March, following the resignation of the subpostmaster.

But with the help of CRISP, Marzia Aloisio reopened it in December and is now operating it from the community-run shop.

A spokesman for the county council said: “We are trying to make sure that communities in rural areas retain as many services as possible – we have been talking to the Post Office about the future of services in the county.

“It is true that we have not always had the level of understanding and co-operation that we would have liked, but we will continue working them and we hope for a more productive relationship in future.”

Marzia has no doubt that Post offices provide a vital service and for rural communities and especially for elderly people.

“All the villagers have said what a lifeline it is.

“Many people in the village are elderly and can’t drive and the nearest town is Alston which only has one bus service a day.

“Regular customers stay for a chat, they meet someone else and they stay for a bit longer.

“When the Post Office closed, the village was quiet and there was no one about.

“Now you see people in the street, it gives people a reason to leave their homes, get some exercise and meet people.

“If you are alone and not very mobile, you don’t leave your home.

“It is as if life has come back to the village.”