What's consultation for then?

The list of post office closures just out after the supposed "consultation" phase makes me wonder exactly what that consultation consisted of. Last year there was a list of proposed closures. In a huge number of cases there were active local campaigns, huge petitions and so on, to argue the case for specific post offices. Of the ones I know about directly, I know people were working to save the ones in Aigburth Road and Thurne Way in Liverpool and the Bailey's Lane one in Halewood. And I have read press coverage about campaigns to save others. Yet by the looks of it one has been saved, there is no news yet on a further two, and all the rest - nearly 40 - are to go. In one case I helped collect signatures, standing outside mid afternoon one day. The outlet was amazingly busy and in a parade of shops which also had a lot of traffic. And yet this one is to go. It makes me wonder exactly what sort of an argument would cause a change of mind.