Action needed to help less well-off families with soaring energy bills

Call to tackle unfairness and help protect the Post Office network

Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor gave his strong support today to new proposals to help less well-off families with their energy bills. Conservatives have pledged to reform Post Office Card Accounts so that families without bank accounts can benefit from the lower energy and water tariffs offered to customers paying by direct debit.

This could cut the energy bills of up to 4 million Post Office Card Account (POCA) holders by up to £100 a year. There are 8 million people in the UK who do not have a bank account or are effectively without a bank. Many of them use Card Accounts instead. But because they cannot pay their bills by direct debit, they face higher prices for gas, electricity and water.

• A Conservative Government will reform Card Accounts so that they can be used for the first time to pay utility bills by direct debit. This proposal, which is supported by leading utility companies, will bring significant savings to energy companies through lower collection costs, which can be passed onto consumers in the form of lower bills.

• In addition, because state benefits are automatically paid into Card Accounts each week, customers will benefit from a more convenient way of managing their finances and paying their bills.

• This policy could also generate up to £20 million a year in additional revenue for Post Offices, which could help keep Post Offices from going to the wall as a result of Labour cuts. By contrast, the Labour Party is planning to take the Card Account away from Post Offices, which will lead to more Post Office closures.

Giles McNeill explained:

“It is totally unfair that many of the poorest households across West Lindsey end up paying more for their energy and water bills because they do not have bank accounts and cannot pay by direct debit. Under Labour, it is the poor who suffer most.

“These new Conservative proposals will help people struggling with rising household bills by letting them use their Post Office Card Account to pay their utility bills. Energy and gas bills of up to four million people could be cut by £100, helping many families at a time when the cost of living is rising fast.

“These plans will also bring in additional revenue for Post Offices, helping maintain our important network and stave off more Labour cuts.”

MP taking credit for Post Office decision is opportunism

Below is a selection of letters from today's Lincolnshire Echo, including one from Giles McNeill (first), Nettleham Ward candidate for West Lindsey District Council.

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I Am pleased for the Bailgate businesses and residents whose post office will remain open (December 13).

But I am sorry for the people and businesses in and around St-Peter-at- Gowts and others across Lincolnshire whose post offices will close.

Such despicable action by the Labour Government makes it all the more galling to then read the local Labour MP for Lincoln, Gillian Merron, attempting to take all the credit for the reprieve of the Bailgate post office. No-one saw her at any of the public meetings and no-one saw her actively supporting any of the campaign initiatives. Did she even sign the petition, as it attacked her own Government's decision? Nearly 7,000 Lincoln people did - and she is a paid minister in that Government, supposedly for the East Midlands.

Miss Merron in my view did very little actively behind the scenes either, and her trying to grab the spotlight is outrageous opportunism when so many people organised so many campaigns.

GILES McNEILL Lincoln.

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As a Park Ward councillor, I would like to put on public record my opposition to the decision of Post Office Ltd to close St Peter-at-Gowts post office.

The reasons given by Post Office Ltd for the closure of St Peter's are that it is only 0.8 miles from Sincil Street, that public transport is available in the area, and that there are other branches in the Lincoln area providing alternative services.

I believe that Post Office Ltd has disregarded the evidence presented to it - that many of those living in the Sincil Bank area, the elderly in particular, do not have personal transport, do not live anywhere near the High Street, and therefore must undertake long walks either to catch a bus into town or cross Pelham Bridge or the railway bridge to get to Sincil Street.

Further, Post Office Ltd appears to have conveniently forgotten it cited St Peter's as an open "alternative" facility during the last round of closures.

The city council as a whole believes that the logic of the decision relating to St Peter-at-Gowts is flawed and may breach the Post Office's own guidelines regarding access. Thus the access argument is being closely examined so that a last-ditch attempt to head off closure may be made.

I am ashamed the Labour Government is involved, no matter how indirectly, in a closure that will hit some of the poorest in the city.

COUN BRENT CHARLESWORTHPark Ward Councillor (Labour).

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Although it is wonderful news Bailgate post office has been saved (December 13), I cannot help wondering how Post Office Ltd thought it was going to save money by closing a viable business unless it assumed trade was going to be redirected elsewhere. Clearly the evidence was that the financial viability of the area was going to be devastated.

How many other post offices are being killed off by these slash and burn tactics?

Although it is understandable the Government wants to balance its books, there seems to be no evidence that its politics with Post Office Ltd give any meaningful move in that direction. The loss-making post offices will still exist because nobody seems to be interested in making them pay for themselves.

Governments in Britain and elsewhere look at Russia as having little more than an elective dictatorship, yet the way Britain has been run over the past 28 years suggests that our governments now do very much as they like.

People running departments are afflicted with the same authoritarian manner because they do not see it in their interests to raise questions.

It is hardly surprising that many people feel that voting is a waste of time.

THOMAS E. ROOKES Ruskin Avenue, St Giles, Lincoln.

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I am very pleased that all those who signed the petition and wrote letters on behalf of the Bailgate post office can see their actions brought about a change to the cold hearted Post Office puppets of this Labour Government.

A shame, however, the Post Office ignored all other protestations.

It was obvious this Government was determined to have exactly 2,500 more post offices close across our nation, while curiously in Scotland more are being opened.

This round of post office closures brings the total to nearly 10,000, roughly half the total branches that were open in 1997.

Personal information is lost willfully on two computer disks; more than 11,000 security guards are illegally working here but passed security checks to work in the UK; the European policy of Gordon Brown is a sham and embarrassing.

Every taxpayer has lent Northern Rock more than £1,000 - that's a total of £30bn. Would a bank in the South East have been treated the same?

But don't worry, no-one is to blame and no-one will resign.

They aren't likely to go unless they are removed from office by the great British public whenever the next General Election is called.

KARL McCARTNEY Lincoln Conservative PPC.

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