Jonathan Djanogly, the Member of Parliament for the Huntingdon Constituency, welcomed the news received today of the decision by the Post Office to reopen the St Ives branch in Bridge Street from 24 March 2003.
Mr Djanogly said:
"Considering that we only received notice of the proposed closure some two weeks ago, this is a remarkable achievement for the local community and, in particular, the St Ives Town Council.
I have today received a letter from the Post office confirming this wonderful news. The Post Office are also now to be reviewing arrangements for the restoration of a long term viable Post Office branch and I will continue to take a strong interest in ensuring that this happens.
Whilst I congratulate the Post Office on responding to local concerns so quickly, I remain of the opinion, having seen similar circumstances unfortunately occurring with other local Post Offices, that the Post Office is lacking in its ability to effectively notify closures and recruit new sub postmasters and find alternative premises.
We need to have the Post Office taking a more proactive stance on proposed closures at a much earlier stage. I shall, through the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee, be highlighting this issue in order to reduce the massive upset to local communities that can be caused from Post Office closures.
In the meantime, this is really good news for St Ives."