Farron urges 'post office fight back' in the South Lakes

South Lakes Tim Farron MP has asked Lib Dem Postal Services Minister Ed Davey to ask to reinstate a Post Office in Cartmel and to help secure the future of Levens Post Office.

In Tim's letter he says:

The post office in the village of Levens is set to close in December after the current post master and post mistress retire. There is a grocery store in the village as well ('Central Stores') which could be a perfect new location for the branch…

I am concerned that Post Office Ltd might instead seek an outreach option rather than making every effort to ensure a permanent and full time replacement. Please would you ensure that PO Ltd keep a full time and permanent post office branch in Levens and let me know what progress you are making?

On a related matter, around 18 months ago, the Post Office in the village of Cartmel closed and despite the fact that the village has many other businesses some of which were interested in taking on the post office as a fulltime permanent concern, PO ltd refused to make any attempt to maintain a full time presence. Instead they pursued a two day a week outreach option in the Spar. Cartmel is a honeypot tourist venue which means that a branch there could be extremely successful, please would you put pressure on PO Ltd to revisit their decision and to look for a full time permanent Post Office option for the village of Cartmel.

Commenting Tim said:

"I recently met with Ed Davey and made the case to him for a strong and viable Post Office network for our area. Even in these tough economic times, Lib Dems have ensured an extra £1.4 billion will go into the post office network to put it on a stable financial footing. After years of post office closures, its now time time for us to launch a fightback for our post offices - to keep a branch in Levens and re-open a full branch in Cartmel."