Pressure on government over postal cuts

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is facing calls to look again at controversial plans cut subsidies to the post office network.

A cross party coalition of Norfolk county councillors from all four political groups is today set to lobby central government on the issue amid fears about the survival prospects of the rural network if the so-called Social Network Subsidy is cut.

Councillors believe that a string of decisions including withdrawing the Post Office Account card, TV savings stamps coupled with closures and the possible increase in business postage charges in rural areas raise “serious uncertainties” about the future of the service and its funding.

In a joint motion to council, the scrutiny committee will urge the authority to write to Mr Prescott to make sure there is full consultation before a decision is taken.

“We believe decisions that government has made about the future of the sub post office provision have taken insufficient account of the social and financial implications for local communities,” according to the statement.

“In rural and urban areas of Norfolk sub post offices are a vital social network base and ‘anchor’ stores for other retail outlets.”

Their closure “implies a serious loss to the local community”, it adds.

Ironically, it comes as the county council switches its postal deliveries from Royal Mail to TNT in a deal which will save the authority GBP 200,000 a year.

The deal was secured during an online auction and could pave the way for similar saving by other councils.

The county council sends around four million letters a year and its corporate procurement unit will be working closely with TNT to ensure a smooth transition over the next couple of months as the contract gets up and running.

Tony Williams, cabinet member for commercial services and efficiency, said: “This is a further demonstration that we are serious about making efficiencies in a range of areas and I know there is a determination to extend these savings across the board.

“There are a number of e-auctions planned for later this year and I am confident that – by banding together with other councils in the East of England – we can achieve quite significant savings when buying items. This is a large organisation and we need to use that to maximum advantage to get the very best value for money for our council taxpayers.”