THE case of a disabled East Lancashire woman whose normal post office was closed has been taken to the top by her local MP Nigel Evans.

The Ribble Valley Tory raised the plight of Edith Hayes and her husband Allan with Tony Blair at Prime Minister's Questions.

But he claimed the Prime Minister's response was a "slap in the face" for the couple, of Alma Place, Clitheroe.

Mr and Mrs Heyes had contacted Mr Evans, claiming that elderly people like themselves suffered most when post offices were shut. They told him they were being forced to travel to the King Street Post Office rather than the Henthorn Road Post Office.

Mr Evans told Mr Blair: "On Monday, I met two of my constituents in Alma Place in Clitheroe. The wife is disabled. Normally she travelled to her local post office in Henthorn Road in her wheelchair, and she enjoyed doing that. On Monday, we travelled in a vehicle past the post office, which is now closed to another post office in the centre of Clitheroe which is on a hill.

"We had to park some way from it, then get out of the vehicle and travel up to the post office. Do you realise that your policy of closing post offices is causing such a deterioration in the quality of life of so many disabled people?"

Mr Blair replied: "As you must know, post office closure also proceeded under the previous government, to the tune of several thousand.

"There is not a policy of post office closures, but as post offices undergo a tremendous amount of change, as fewer people collect their benefits from the post office, the government was given additional subsidy to post offices.

"Over the next few years, they will receive the subsidy of £1billion. We are doing what we can, but we cannot put endless sums of money into post offices that are not commercially viable. That is why it is not fair to say that it is the government's policy to close post offices. We are doing our best to keep as many open as possible. The only way of keeping more open is to spend even more money, to which you were opposed."

Afterwards Mr Evans said: "It's a staggering response and completely wrong. This government has a policy of encouraging post offices to close and giving them inducements to do so. They want to think out the network so that other post offices could make a profit, despite what it does to vulnerable people.

"Mr Blair's response is a slap in the face to the Hayes family and to other disabled and pensioner customers of the post offices and totally ignored their needs."