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Lifeline hope for post offices
COUNCILLORS in Hull are looking at ways of saving post offices in the city threatened with closure.
A cross-party committee will meet next week to consider adopting a strategy used by Essex County Council which has saved three post office branches by using them to deliver a range of council services.
Essex is subsidising the businesses over three years and aims for them to become financially self-sufficient within that time.
Hull Liberal Democrat councillor Dave McCobb said: "Obviously over the last decade Hull has lost a very significant number of post offices under the closure programme agreed by this and previous Governments.
"We do know some councils have had some limited successes for example sharing post office facilities with council facilties.
"We are setting up this committee to look at ways in which the council could assist in ensuring that communities don't lose access to vital post office services."
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Hull North Denis Healy said he welcomed the move: "Along with local people I led the campaign to save Princes Avenue and Beverley Road post offices from closure last year.
"Sadly despite protests from local people the Government went ahead and closed them any way regardless of our objections.
For many people access to the post office is a vital lifeline and far too many have been closed."
However Labour councillors said they had yet to be convinced.
COUNCILLORS in Hull are looking at ways of saving post offices in the city threatened with closure.
A cross-party committee will meet next week to consider adopting a strategy used by Essex County Council which has saved three post office branches by using them to deliver a range of council services.
Essex is subsidising the businesses over three years and aims for them to become financially self-sufficient within that time.
Hull Liberal Democrat councillor Dave McCobb said: "Obviously over the last decade Hull has lost a very significant number of post offices under the closure programme agreed by this and previous Governments.
"We do know some councils have had some limited successes for example sharing post office facilities with council facilties.
"We are setting up this committee to look at ways in which the council could assist in ensuring that communities don't lose access to vital post office services."
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Hull North Denis Healy said he welcomed the move: "Along with local people I led the campaign to save Princes Avenue and Beverley Road post offices from closure last year.
"Sadly despite protests from local people the Government went ahead and closed them any way regardless of our objections. For many people access to the post office is a vital lifeline and far too many have been closed."
However Labour councillors said they had yet to be convinced. Leader of the Labour group Steve Brady said: "It's all right having nice words but it's action that matters.
"Everyone has pious words but the only time they go to the post office is for stamps.
"My worry is that it's more Liberal Democrat spin and about making them look caring and sharing.
"If the post office is going to be more effective in future they have to offer a much wider range of services."
Essex County Council started looking into ways to help post offices after a decision to axe more than 30 branches.
The authority has invested 1.5m in the scheme over three years and says it expects to reopen four more branches by the summer.
A spokeswoman for the council said they had advised post offices under threat of closure not to remove equipment to make them easier to reopen.
The reopened branches look much as they used to apart from new computer terminals which can be used to get information about council services. Outside they carry the familiar Post Office logo but also a large red sign declaring: "Community Information Point."
She said the council had considered the community value of the business rather than looking at it strictly from a commercial point of view.
She said: "It's also about the knock on impact especially in the current economic climate. If people become increasingly isolated then they end up using our services more."
Nearly all 2,500 of the country's 14,000 post offices that were earmarked for closure under the Post Office programme have now shut. However there have been warnings from theRural Shops Alliance, which represents 8,000 village shops in England, that more closures could follow as the recession bites.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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