Their closure would cause great inconvenience to the thousands of people who use these excellent local services. It would also add to town centre traffic congestion as more people use their vehicles to get to a post office.

This is a serious backward step for the community of Skegness and all too typical of the erosion of local services taking place under this Government.

The blame for this latest round of closure proposals lies fairly and squarely with the Labour Government. Some 4,000 post offices have already closed under Labour and there are plans to close a further 2,500 by 2009.

At the present rate by the time of the next election Gordon Brown will have closed down a third of the entire Post Office network.

The Conservatives oppose these plans because we believe post offices are the lifeblood of local communities. They are as important as the local school or pub.

During the consultation period during the next few weeks local Conservatives will be asking people to sign a petition opposing the closure of Seaview Road and Drummond Road post offices. We hope as many people as possible will sign it.

Conservative district councillors Dick Edginton, John Byford and Ken Milner, Conservative County Council candidate Mark Smith, and Skegness Conservative Branch chairman John Cowpe.