Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart has launched a campaign to protect rural post offices in East Yorkshire after the Government outlined proposals to remove the current national requirement to maintain at least 11,500 branches across the UK.
The proposal forms part of the Department for Business and Trade’s green paper, The Future of the Post Office, which was published earlier this year.
A public consultation on the plans closed on October 6 and the Government is now analysing the feedback it received.
The paper argues that the existing network size requirement, which has remained unchanged for nearly two decades, may no longer reflect how people use mail and banking services. It suggests that a more flexible approach could allow post offices to adapt to changing customer behaviour and to new digital services.
However, the green paper also acknowledges the post office’s role as a “critical social and economic infrastructure”, particularly in rural and isolated communities. It notes that many villages would otherwise have no convenient access to basic postal services, cash withdrawals or bill payments.
Mr Stuart said removing the minimum network size could put smaller branches at risk by making it easier for the post office network to contract if local operators can no longer make them financially viable. Many rural branches are based within village shops, where post office income often supports the sustainability of the business.
The issue has taken on added urgency in South East Holderness, where the closure of Lloyds Bank in Hedon will leave the area without a high-street bank. Post offices are expected to handle more cash and banking transactions as a result.
Mr Stuart is also leading a campaign for a banking hub to replace the branch, gathering more than 1,500 signatures and prompting LINK, the organisation that oversees access to cash, to re-examine its earlier decision not to provide one.
Mr Stuart said: “Our post offices matter to our villages – they’re not just places to post letters, collect parcels, or pay in cheques, they’re the heart of our communities. In so many villages, the post office is the last shop, the last public place where anyone can pop in, see a friendly face, and feel part of something.
“If this requirement is scrapped, villages across rural East Yorkshire could lose not just their post office, but a vital community hub. That’s why I’m urging residents to sign my petition and join the campaign to save our post offices.”
Residents can sign the petition and find out more at grahamstuart.com/SaveOurPostOffice.