Councils 'kept in dark' on post office plans

Royal Mail has been accused of obstructing plans by councils to save hundreds of post offices from closure.

The Government says 2,500 branches must close to preserve the network’s GBP 150 million annual subsidy and cut its GBP 4 million-a-week losses.

Up to 50 councils in England and Wales are investigating ways of saving threatened branches, offering rescue packages of GBP 18,000 per branch over three years from council tax receipts.

But some local authorities claim that Royal Mail is standing in the way of such plans by withholding key information about branches until a consultation period has elapsed, so the councils cannot assess whether they are viable businesses to take on.

Royal Mail has also allegedly stipulated that authorities who want to use the Post Office branding must meet criteria on minimum turnover and the number of counters.

Sir Simon Milton, the chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents 410 councils, claimed that Royal Mail executives lacked enthusiasm over the plans.

He said: “There is not the high-level commitment within the Post Office to engage seriously with alternative means to keep post offices alive.”

Ideas put forward in December 2006 by Lord Bruce Lockhart, Sir Simon’s predecessor, to help keep branches open included charging peppercorn rents and letting councils run services from their own premises, such as town halls and leisure centres.

The suggestions were made personally to the Royal Mail boss, Adam Crozier, but nothing came of them.

A Post Office spokesman said: “The Post Office is having constructive discussions with a number of councils about the funding of branches and it is absolute nonsense to suggest that we would obstruct any positive approach.

“The meeting with the LGA was specifically to discuss direct mail and was held before the Government announced its proposals to close 2,500 Post Office branches. Had any concrete proposals for supporting Post Office branches been put to us, we would, of course, have responded.”