Commenting on Closures
May 13, 2008 3:33 PM
At the time of writing we await the verdict on which of our local post offices are to close, which is expected next week.
I hardly need stress that in our North Devon villages many post offices provide the essential fabric of local communities and will be sorely missed if they are closed.
This is not a new development: The Post Office network has been in decline for many years as successive governments have starved it of essential investment. The current government has undermined its local function by driving people away to the banks. Ultimately they have failed to recognise its vital social role.
Post offices' value to their surrounding areas is both social and economic. The New Economics Foundation found that in rural economies every £1 of subsidy makes between £2 and £4 for the local economy.
Local shops will be undermined by reduced access to postal services, causing further damage to the rural economy. Shops with the post office inside them will be hardest hit, and some will fold as a result.
Post offices provide a valuable service to around 2 million vulnerable people who rely on them, rather than banks, to access benefits. The most vulnerable will feel the impact most acutely.
In rural areas the reduction in postal services is compounded by poor transport facilities, a problem which the Government has no plans to rectify. You can see why so many people are alarmed at the expected announcements.
A more enlightened view might have led us to different conclusions. Sustaining our post offices should not mean breaking the treasury. If the Post Office - a partly social network - were decoupled from the competitive Royal Mail, that might enhance its prospects of future sustainability.
Subsidy to the Post Office should remain permissible in the long term, whereas to the Royal Mail it will not in competition law. If there were greater investment to modernise the Post Office network's infrastructure it could enjoy a new lease of life and silence the calls for closure.
Next Tuesday we will know the worst. A six week period of public consultation follows and I urge everyone to take part and feed in their views. They say you don't know what you've got 'until it's gone. The danger is that we may realise this too late.
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