Tag: Europe

The Government has backtracked on a pledge to hold a public consultation over the future funding of 8,500 rural post offices before a spring deadline on what to do about them. The Government has spent pounds 150m a year since 2003 supporting rural branches, many of which are in remote locations and have little business. The payments, however, are due to stop in April 2008, at the end of a two-year “notice period” that must be served by the Government. After requests from interested parties, such as Postwatch, the consumer watchdog, and the charity Age Concern, stakeholders were told by the Government that a “full and public” consultation would be held ahead of the two-year notice period.
But a senior source at the Royal Mail said the Government has since changed its mind and no longer plans to hold a consultation before the April deadline. “The original plan was [to hold it] but now they are not so sure about what they are consulting on,” he said. A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry insisted a consultation would still go ahead but was unable to say when.

Post offices are being forced to close by an “urban” Government which does not understand the countryside, a Midland MP has claimed. Owen Paterson (Con North Shropshire) said villages risked losing vital services as post offices went out of business. The crisis was a result of changes to the way benefits are paid, he said. Many claimants, including pensioners, once collected payments from their local post office, but the money is now paid directly into bank accounts.
As a result, post offices lost customers as well as losing the fee they received for administering benefits, said Mr Paterson. Trade and Industry Minister Barry Gardiner said the Government was providing pounds 150 million a year to help rural post offices – but warned that some would have to close.