Secret plan to replace UK post offices with a van
Small rural post offices will be under threat if a secret pilot scheme in the Highlands is successful and is rolled out across the country.
The Post Office would like to close five rural sub-post offices in Caithness and replace them with a van travelling around the area.
And to pave the way for the cost-cutting move, financial sweeteners are being offered to the current operators to quit.
The Post Office intends replicating the scheme in other outlying parts of the country as it seeks to reduce the £150million annual Government subsidy of its rural network.
Under threat are the long-established offices at Thrumster, Reiss, Keiss, Auckengill and Mey. Closure could mean difficulty for country people getting cash, with Auckengill, for example, 20 miles from the nearest cash machine at Wick.
When contacted yesterday, the operators of all the offices said they could not comment.
And the Post Office declined to give any details of its planned pilot scheme in the far north.
A spokeswoman said: "We're still involved in the contractual issues around it. Letters will be going out to local opinion-formers on Monday.
"We are not able to give any details just now."
If agreement is reached with the operators, a consultation period will be launched between August 9 and September 9.
The spokeswoman added: "We'll be speaking to customers to find out the times they require the service and what arrangements suit them best."
She stressed the Post Office is committed to providing a service for rural customers, albeit in new-style ways of working.
She said: "We're in the position that our rural network is losing millions of pounds each year and the Government has asked us to report back on new ways of working. Doing nothing is simply not an option."
The spokeswoman said it would be wrong to term any financial offers made to the operators as inducements or incentives to leave.
She said: "Any office we include in pilots of this kind are for one reason or another at serious risk of closure in the near future. We are keen to take action before this happens as once an office closes, it's very difficult to get it to reopen.
"Should an office close as part of a new arrangement we see it as only fair that sub-postmistresses and sub-postmasters are compensated.
"We're not paying them to leave but we believe they should be compensated for the time and effort they have put into providing the service."
Different pilot schemes are under way in Fife and Dumfries and Galloway.
The Post Office gave confidential briefings of its plans for Caithness to local councillors and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Lib Dem MP John Thurso earlier in the summer.
Highland Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon said: "This is very bad news for rural areas. Providing a van rather than an open post office means the Post Office dictates when people have access to services.
"If you are not at home or available when the van visits, you will miss out.
"The Post Office should look at more innovative means of providing services in places such as existing village shops, pubs or tourist information centres.
"Post offices should be available during normal business hours."
Caithness councillor John Green said: "I think this would be a poorer service. The mobile service is only going to be in a particular area for a relatively short period of time.
"There might be some aspects that will be better, such as offering an internet access, but its hours of operating will be very limited."
Lord Thurso said it would not be known until after the consultation how often the post office van would do the rounds, and his opinion rested largely on that frequency.
He said: "I've got nothing against imaginative solutions and we all know the problems there can be in getting people to run small sub-post offices.
"We do need to change but a post office is very much of the rural fabric and my final decision on the proposed pilot would very much depend on the quality of service that was provided and the hours the van was to operate at particular villages."
