Post offices: Lamb on line

The following e-mail reaches us...

At the spring conference in Harrogate in March, Liberal Democrats will be debating a motion from the Federal Policy Committee calling for reforms to Royal Mail and policies to save the Post Office network.

The proposals for the Royal Mail include plans for shared ownership under which just over half the shares are owned by the staff and the government with the rest sold to small investors and the markets.

The aim is to create a successful Royal Mail that protects services to households and allows the company the full commercial freedom to invest without having to compete with schools and hospitals for government capital.

The funds raised from the sale of shares would be used to create a £2 billion investment fund for the Post Office network - reinvigorating the existing branches and opening new ones where they are needed.

I am very keen to involve members directly in discussions about our proposals and to answer any questions and concerns. To help do this I have set up a web forum linked from my website through which I will be available to answer questions this Thursday 16th February from 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

I would be delighted if you were to visit the site at that time and post any questions or raise any issues. I will be answering as many as I can straight away and posting the answers on the site for people to read.

My website address is: www.normanlamb.org.uk

I look forward to your visiting the forum. You can also see the full text of the motion at the site.

Best wishes

Norman Lamb MP