Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock has urged the people of Ulverston to step up the fight to save their post office after managers refused to guarantee its future at a special meeting with him in the House of Commons. 

Mr Woodcock called on the whole town to sign the petition against closure after his meeting to raise local concerns about the proposal to close the existing crown post office in Ulverston and look for a local retailer to franchise the services.

Mr Woodcock was told that successfully franchising the service would mean that no services were lost, and that the Post Office ‘were not looking to close post offices’. However when he requested assurances that a failure to find a franchise partner would not result in total closure he was told it was not possible to guarantee this.

Mr Woodcock said: “Post office managers have been instructed by government to carry out this change programme even though the Crown offices they are targeting tend to be more profitable than the network overall. 

“The manager who came to the commons to meet me was clear he was not authorised to give me the guarantee our community needs - that the full range of services will be available in Ulverston town centre come what may. 

"So I will take the case directly to the government minister responsible for the network. The more people we can get signing the petition against closure the stronger our voice will be."