Post offices are heading for extinction
Post offices are in desperate need of Government support and direction if they are to survive, the network’s watchdog warned last night.
Postcomm believes the post office is becoming increasingly irrelevant as the number of services it provides are reduced – destroying its role as the social hub of a community.
The claims back up our Don’t Sound the Last Post campaign – which has now collected more than 12,000 signatures – and calls on the Government to do more to help keep post offices open.
Postcomm’s report, Post Offices at the Crossroads, paints a grim picture of the current state of the network.
The postal services regulator looked at 14,000 post offices around the country and found that the network lost GBP111 million last year despite a GBP150m subsidy to rural offices – which is being withdrawn in 2008.
It said the Department for Work and Pensions and the DVLA were withdrawing services from all post offices, which has already led to a GBP168m revenue loss over the last year.
The report also found that the rural post office network was in particular financial trouble, with only 1,500 of the 8,000 rural offices making money.
Postcomm said new products such as personal loans and credit cards offered by the post office were having very little impact, representing less than one per cent of urban sales.
Those working in the network have very low morale, with 72 per cent of sub postmasters worried about the future.
The report said some innovations were proving successful, such as mobile post offices, but more needed to be done.
Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton said: “The Government must decide what it wants from the post office network and plan for its long-term sustainability.”
Although the postal service was opened up to competition in January 2006, Royal Mail still operates 96 per cent of the market.
The Liberal Democrats will lead a Parliamentary debate on the future of Britain’s post offices on Monday following the damning review by Postcomm.
The Liberal Democrat Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary Edward Davey MP, said:
“This damning criticism of ministers over post offices by an independent watchdog is unprecedented. Postcomm’s bleak prediction for rural post offices ought to shame these do-nothing Labour ministers into action after their acts of vandalism against the network.
“With over 5,000 post offices in danger of closing according to Postcomm’s figures, we now have a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The Liberal Democrats will be leading the Parliamentary campaign to call for action before it is too late.”
The Western Daily Press will march with 3,000 members of the National Federation of SubPostmsters on October 18 to hand over a petition containing three million signatures to Downing Street.
