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Ministers attacked over post office closures
THE Government was today accused of showing "a real lack of concern" over the closure of 2,500 post offices, leaving rural and urban communities facing "distress and upheaval".
And consultations with communities on proposed closures of local branches appeared to be "little more than a piece of window dressing", according to a damning report by MPs.
The Government failed to properly assess the impact of halting what could be a lifeline service, they said, while the 45m-a-year savings generated by the closures were "less than impressive" given the impact on the public and businesses.
Ministers are being urged to make clear any compulsory closures in the future should be "a last resort, not a first" and are challenged to address fears that some of the post office facilities opened in village halls, pubs or even a van to replace a closing branch could be shut when their future is reviewed after a year.
Today's report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee is the latest to criticise the Network Change closure programme which began in 2007.
Dozens of communities across Yorkshire have been left without a local branch after Post Office Ltd sought to stem losses from the network, which the Government is subsidising by 1.7bn up to 2011. In rural England, one in five branches has been shut over the past eight years.
The MPs particularly criticise the Government for failing to carry out sufficient assessment of the social and economic benefits of post offices, particularly in urban areas, before authorising so many closures.
Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "The closure of the local post office can be a real blow to the community. So the inadequate assessment by the department of the social and economic costs of its programme to close some 2,500 post offices – leaving around 11,500 permanent branches – showed a real lack of concern for the citizens affected.
"The consultation process appeared to the public as little more than a piece of window dressing for a decision which to all intents and purposes had already been taken."
Amid continuing anger over the closures, which were opposed by many Labour backbenchers as well as opposition parties, the Prime Minister offered hope to remaining post offices in September when he used his party conference speech to propose allowing them to offer banking services.
Subpostmasters and customers have long called for branches to be able to offer additional financial services, as well as providing more Government services to help them survive, but last night the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) said it was "bitterly disappointed" the Government was not doing more.
General secretary George Thomson said: "Unless the Government takes urgent action to provide more services for the public and small businesses to access across our counters and to create a state-backed Postbank at the Post Office, not only will the Network Change programme have failed, but it will signal the end of our national network of post offices."
Minister for Postal Affairs Lord Young admitted the closures were "difficult" but said they were necessary because the network was losing 500,000 a day.
He said: "Now that the closures have taken place and Post Office Ltd is on a more sound financial footing, the Government has made it clear that it will not support another round of post Office closures."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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