Committee
Public Petitions Committee, 22 Jun 2005
22 Jun 2005 · S2 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Current Petitions
Sub-post Office Closures (PE764)
I support Mike Watson's suggestion of writing to the Executive. If there is money left in the fund, we should ask whether the fund is going to be extended. I do not know whether Musselburgh would have fallen into the deprivation index category anyway. Do we know whether Musselburgh has applied to the fund, or would it have been ineligible? In addition, the fund is available to post offices in the 20 per cent most deprived areas, but does the Executive plan to increase that figure by another 5 percentage points or to take it up to 30 per cent? That would have an impact on keeping local post offices in local communities.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
Petition PE764 is from Margaret Tait, on behalf of the Stoneybank Tenants and Residents Association in Musselburgh. It calls on the Scottish Parliament to re...
Mike Watson:
Ind
The response is helpful and quite revealing, but I have to say that it does not deal with the main issue. It deals specifically with post offices that are in...
John Scott:
Con
I support Mike Watson's suggestion of writing to the Executive. If there is money left in the fund, we should ask whether the fund is going to be extended. I...
The Convener:
Lab
We could get clarification on that point and see whether there is scope to extend eligibility for the fund.
Mike Watson:
Ind
The Executive states in its response that it will discuss that.I want to raise another issue. The petition refers to walking distances sometimes being in exc...
The Convener:
Lab
We can ask that legitimate question. We will get the two points clarified and keep the petition open until we have received responses. Is that agreed?Members...