POST OFFICE NETWORK IN CUMBRIA

That this House notes the Government's plan to scrap 2,500 post offices on the grounds that the network costs the Government £150 million per annum; further notes that in the last year alone £168 million of Government services have been taken away from the network and believes that it is the policies of this Government which has caused the loss; further believes that village post offices are a vital social lifeline and that mobile post offices can never be the centre of village life; is concerned that Cumbria, the poorest sub-region in the whole of Europe, will take a disproportionate share of the closures; and asks the Government to assist Cumbria rather than push it further down the economic league table.