Campaign against post office threat (From Redditch Advertiser)

Campaign against post office threat

11:39am Tuesday 17th March 2009

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MEMBERS of the Green Party have been out in Redditch town centre to campaign against the latest threats to post offices.

They ran a street stall and collected signatures from passers-by as part of their campaign to oppose partial privatisation of the Royal Mail.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson has supported the conclusions of a report by an independent review panel, led by businessman Richard Hooper, which advised selling 25-33 per cent of Royal Mail to a foreign buyer.

Kevin White, Green Party candidate for Central ward said: “We strongly oppose any privatisation of Royal Mail.

“The Green Party has long campaigned against transferring essential public services to private hands.

Alistair Waugh, Green Candidate for Headless Cross & Oakenshaw said: “Private companies will cherry-pick the most profitable parts of the organisation which currently fund essential but unprofitable services like rural collections, which could lead to even more post office closures in Redditch.

“To call for the part-privatisation of a major British institution at a time when the dangers of ‘the market’ have been so clearly exposed in recent months is clearly madness. The substantial job losses called for by this report are the last thing our struggling economy needs at the moment.”

Mr White added: “The stall went really well and we had a very positive response.

“A lot of people were very strongly opposed to the plans to part privatise Royal Mail and I’ve collected over 100 signatures against the plans so far.”

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