Axe hovers over up to 8000 post offices
FEARS that Britain may lose up to half of its post offices grew yesterday.
Consignia, the new name for the Post Office, dismissed reports of such large-scale closures as “pure speculation”.
However, a spokesman admitted yesterday: “We know that, of our 17,500 post offices, some are not viable and some may have to be closed.”
Consignia reportedly has submitted a strategic plan to the government recommending the immediate closure of 1000 post offices across Britain and a further 7000 closures over the next five years.
It made losses of (pounds) 281m in the first six months of this financial year, and the plan claims radical action is needed to make the company commercially viable, according to a Sunday paper.
The spokesman said there was “no intention to close 1000 post offices soon” and claimed that the loss of a further 7000 in the future was “completely out of the question”. However, he admitted: “The network is making a loss and something has to be done to make as many of those post offices as viable as possible and to cut those losses.”
The spokesman was unable to give a complete assurance that closures would not include post offices in rural areas, but said it would retain these outlets “wherever possible”.
The government already has placed a duty on Consignia to avoid closing any of its 9000 rural post offices unless there is no financial future for a business and the franchise cannot be combined with a local shop.
However, the figures cited in reports yesterday suggest that some may have to go. If the closures were only in urban areas, it would leave 500 post offices in Britain’s towns and cities, compared with the current figure of 8500.
The sheer scale of the closures that are reportedly planned by Consignia, and the inevitable impact on fragile rural communities, would make it politically dangerous for ministers to sanction them.
The strategic plan may instead be an attempt to force the government, which technically owns the company, to inject significant state funds to prevent the closures.
Over the past five years, 1750 post offices have closed, provoking the anger of both opposition politicians and the public.
It is expected that Consignia’s business will suffer further losses after January 2003, when post offices will no longer be responsible for benefits and pensions, which will be paid straight into bank accounts.
Only services such as stamps, parcels and vehicle tax will remain.
Postwatch, the consumer group, said 8000 closures, even over a period of five years, would make it inevitable that many people would no longer have access to universal services, such as parcel weighing or recorded delivery.
A spokesman for the watchdog warned such closures inevitably would hit rural areas.
“The government have said that people must have access to universal services and we would want to know how such massive cuts could be achieved without the loss of those services.”
Fergus Ewing, the SNP spokesman on rural development, said: “I am particularly concerned that smaller post offices in rural parts of Scotland will be the first for the Consignia chop.
“I will be tabling a written question tomorrow in the Scottish Parliament to ask if the first minister will order Consignia to provide the full proposals and details of these secret plans which they refuse to disclose to the public.”
