This is a key week in the battle to protect rural and urban communities in Cumbria.

On Tuesday the Post Office will start a consultation on the future of Post Offices in Cumbria which we know will propose the closure of a number of post offices in the county. This could have serious consequences for some of our communities and especially for vulnerable and elderly people in those communities.

On top of this, press reports suggest that the government will allow post office management to impose conditions on those village shops which lose Post Office status if they are to be entitled to claim compensation.

The conditions are supposed to prevent them competing with remaining Post Office outlets. This is both absurd, since many such shops are miles away from the nearest postal outlet, and of dubious legality.

And some of the proposed restrictions, such as a reported ban on selling lottery tickets, appear to be both vindictive and irrelevant to postal services.

On Wednesday, there is a debate in the House of Commons which will give our MPs the chance to register their opposition to the Government's Post Office closure programme. The debate, arranged by the Conservatives, follows confirmation that 2,500 more post offices are to close by the end of the year.

Post Offices are at the heart of our communities. Wednesday's vote provides a clear opportunity, to put local people in Cumbria first and Party politics second . This would send the Government a very clear message that the closure programme must be reconsidered.

John Gough, Prospective Conservative MP for BarrowCoun John Stevenson, Prospective Conservative MP for CarlisleCoun Chris Whiteside, Prospective Conservative MP for Copeland