Worthing councillors are tabling a all-party motion to support the town's Conservative MPs in their campaign, while addressing decades of post office closures.

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Bob Smytherman has criticised Conservative reforms in the way the Post Office works, 1979 to 1997.

A statement issued to the Herald by Mr Smytherman on behalf of the Liberal Democrat group said: "The Tories did nothing to help the Post Office to prepare for the challenges ahead.

"Between 1992 and 1997, they prevaricated and introduced piecemeal and limited reforms, which failed to strengthen the network.

"By 1995, £1 billion was taken from the Post Office by the Treasury plus a further £1 billion over the next two-and-a-half years - they invested none of this money in the post office network.

"A commitment in 1994 to modernising benefit payments failed and by late 1997 the ICL Pathway Project was £600 million overspent and three years behind schedule.

"More than 4,000 post offices closed under the Tories, between 1979-1997, 974 Crown Post offices closed and 3,482 Sub-Post Offices closed.

"Michel Heseltine, minister responsible for post offices, repeatedly made it clear that his desire to see a fully privatised Post Office was frustrated only by the extremely small majority of the Major Government."

Click here to see the table of post office closures the Lib Dem group has put together, showing the numbers during the Conservative's last 10 years in power.

Council motion

The motion to be read out at the council's Tuesday, December 11 meeting reads:

Proposed post office closures in Worthing and Adur

Worthing has received the news that it is to lose four more sub-post offices with dismay.

This will equate to the closure of nearly one in five of the remaining post offices in the network.

These post office in Downland Parade, Heene Road, Broadwater Road and The Strand, provide crucial community and commercial services for the residents and businesses in their areas.

Their loss would be a devastating blow, especially for the elderly, the less mobile and the disabled.

This council believes that to expect customers to have to travel for up to an additional mile to access alternative post offices will make life very difficult for many people.

It will be impossible for those who do not have cars or for whom public transport is not available or accessible.

This council considers that instead, these post offices should be allowed to flourish by diversifying their business.

It, therefore, calls upon the Government to halt this closure programme before it causes irrecoverable damage to our society and our local economy.

This council further notes the social importance of post offices to the well-being of individuals and communities in Worthing.

It believes that the latest closure programme is unnecessary and calls on the Government to:-

1. Remove the Royal Mail restrictions on the Post Office to open up further business opportunities for the network;

2. Stop removing Government business from the Post Office;

3. Review which additional Government functions could be carried out through post offices;

4. Invest in the post office network.

This council supports our MPs Peter Bottomly and Tim Loughton in their campaign against the programme of closures in Worthing and Adur and calls upon the public to sign the various petitions against the cuts.

The Liberal Democrats on-line petition has been launched which reads:

"We, the undersigned, call on the Government to stop the unnecessary Post Office closure programme affecting local Post Offices in Worthing, and instead free the business from restrictive regulation, invest in the future of the network and stop removing government business to safeguard our local post offices."

Click here to sign.