Tag: Royal Mail

Post Office Ltd today (Tuesday, 03 June 2008) opened a six-week local public consultation on its Area Plan for the South and West Wales area. In line with the criteria and factors set by the UK Government in its Response Document (DTI The Post Office Network, Government response to public consultation May 2007 – www.berr.gov.uk/consultants), the Area Plan proposes future provision of Post Office services through a network of 291 Post Office® branches across the South and West Wales area, including establishing 19 new innovative Outreach service points, but to close 40 existing branches.

Under the proposals 99.4% of the area’s population will either see no change, or will remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

The local public consultation on the Area Plan Proposal for South and West Wales will commence on 03 June 2008.

The closing date for feedback in respect of the local public consultation is therefore 14 July 2008.

South and West Wales is diverse in nature from the urban, predominantly industrial areas of Bridgend, Port Talbot, Swansea and Neath to the rural, agricultural heartlands of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. 53% of the population live in rural communities and 47% in urban areas. In order to meet the Government’s access criteria and avoid undue hardship, Post Office Ltd is proposing a future Network in the region comprising 87 branches in urban towns and cities and 204 branches in rural areas.

The defined as deprived have been carefully considered in this Area Plan Proposal, reflecting the specific national criteria set by the Government to give greater safeguards on the accessibility of branches in these communities. Some 31.4% of the area’s total population live in deprived communities, 18.8% of them in urban areas and 12.6% in rural areas. This proposal for future network provision in South and West Wales provides for 42 branches being located in urban deprived communities.

Post Office Ltd today (Tuesday, 3 June) announced decisions on the future of Post Office® branches across Northern Ireland following a six-week public consultation that ended on 12 May 2008.

Post Office services will be provided through a network of 496 branches, which supports the national accessibility criteria introduced by the Government and ensures that over 94.1% of the population in Northern Ireland will see no change.

The plan confirmed today means that 38 branches will close in Northern Ireland with the first closures scheduled to take place in July 2008. These branches were detailed in the Area Plan proposal published on 1 April 2008. Post Office Limited is also confirming the creation of 53 outreach Post Office services.

Four branches originally proposed for closure – Parkhall Post Office, Strathroy Post, The Throne Post Office and Attical Post Office, which was originally proposed for replacement by an outreach service, – will now remain open following a review of the issues raised during public consultation.

During the six-week public consultation, Post Office Limited received approximately 4,500 responses and attended 97 meetings with customers and their representatives to understand customers’ concerns and to ensure that all the information provided by customers formed part of the final decision regarding each affected branch.

Even though the Royal Mail has been under extreme pressure for a number of years it seems that the expected end to post office closures may be delayed. A report from an influential committee of MPs will this week confirm that the management of Royal Mail were not able to give a guarantee that the number of post offices in the network would stay above 11,500.
The company recent announced the planned closure of a further 2,500 post offices taking the limit down to the government declared minimum of 11,500. The committee of MPs are seriously thinking of reporting the company to the regulator Postcomm to try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
However, while the number of active post offices is set to fall significantly over the next couple of years, there are some in the business who blame the government and the competition authorities. They were the people that opened up the UK postal market at a time when Royal Mail was not in shape to compete.
There have also been major problems with the company’s pension scheme and a number of strikes over the last few years which have further deteriorated any confidence left in the operation. Quite where the closures will stop is unsure, but Royal Mail is not yet a competitive operation.