Red Republic

Members of the Scottish Socialist Party in Cumbernauld have been campaigning against the threatened closure of a local post office in the Kildrum area of the town.As part of their plans to close up to 2 500 post office branches across the country, Royal Mail have announced another raft of proposed closures in Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire. Scandalously they are aiming to close 44 branches in communities across these areas.

SSP member Liz Hair commented, “As a long term resident of Kildrum I was shocked when I heard of the plans to close our post office. I know it is a well-used and important facility for many of us in the area and its loss would be felt by many in Kildrum. It once again seems a case of the interests of communities and individuals being put behind corporate interests and when you consider Royal Mail is supposedly there to provide a public service then this closure cannot be justified.”

As well as campaigning against individual closures in Kildrum, Banton and Queenzieburn, the party is highlighting that the blame for these attempted closure lies at the feet of both Royal Mail management and the government who both seem determined to run the postal service down and hand it over to private companies.

Party member Kevin McVey added, “This closure threat is part of a longer process whose endgame is privatisation of our postal services. Services have been stripped out of local post offices and handed to banks and profitable postal routes are being cherry picked by big business. The public purse is effectively cross subsidising those interested in making a profit from another key public service. Our primary concern is to save Kildrum and the other post offices threatened with closure, but the bigger picture cannot be ignored as another of our valued public services is being sacrificed on the altar of Labour’s slavish support for free market policies.”

SSP members in communities facing the lost of their local post offices will be aiming to work with these communities to keep their local post offices open and keep our postal services out of the hands of private companies. Privatised energy companies are showing what happens when our key services and utilities are run for profit not need.