Jayne Dowle: Deliver us from latest threat to local post offices

IN my village, the post office is at the heart of it all. Not in a chocolate-box, misty nostalgia kind of way, but because it is literally a lifeline.
Post offices are a lifeline to the elderly.Post offices are a lifeline to the elderly.
Post offices are a lifeline to the elderly.

If our local post office closed, an entire settlement of more than 3,000 people would have to travel to town to post anything bigger than a card.

My mother, for example, who suffers from arthritis, doesn’t drive, and relies on a Motability scooter to get around.

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She can make it to the post office and back easily by herself, but wouldn’t have a chance of getting to town on the bus. In personal terms, it gives her independence. In wider terms, the movement of people back and forth to use its services helps to keep the community alive; a cheery wave, a quick chat with an old friend. This is the lifeblood so often missing in today’s society.

It’s not just that – many local people rely on the post office to do their banking, pick up pensions and benefits and withdraw cash. It’s also a shop selling newspapers and cards, and a de facto hub of the community.

The women who run it know everyone. They will always go out of their way to help you and, importantly, find the most cost-effective way to send a parcel. These days, when so many of us use the internet to buy large items, this is an absolute godsend. On more than one occasion when I’ve had to send something large and ungainly back, they have saved me pounds. This level of personal service and customer care would not be found in any other business, I swear.

Yet of all this could be extinct within two years, warns Dave Ward, leader of the Communications Workers Union (CWU). His members are planning a 24-hour strike in protest today. They’re joined by members of Unite, which represents post office managers, protesting at the closure of the defined-salary pension scheme.

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Bosses at the publicly-owned company have sought to play down the industrial action, pointing out that many rural and community outlets are run as small businesses by individuals who are not members of any union. This attitude is typical of the deflection tactics exhibited by “Post Office Ltd”. Who will support the interests of small businesses then?

What’s worse, though, is that it’s not just smaller branches which are under threat. It’s bigger ones too, on high streets up and down the land.

Imagine living in a town without a post office. You might pass it every day and take it for granted. If it wasn’t there though, where would you go when you missed the delivery of a Royal Mail parcel?

Granted, these might not be services which everybody uses every day. When we need them though, it’s good to know that they are there.

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Such as passports for example. When you’re paying – as I did earlier this year – the best part of £200 to renew three passports for your family, you want to know that you are doing it right. I was really grateful to the customer advisor who checked all of mine for a small fee because she did spot mistakes – such as my daughter’s erroneous date of birth – which could have caused delay and further expense.

And yet, according to the CWU, more than 100 crown post offices have already been closed and another 60 are set to disappear this year. This will put thousands of jobs on the line and leave us with severely depleted services.

How can this be right? Why has government after government refused to listen to the unions and the campaigners who tell them that the public need post offices?

Of course, those who are swinging the hammer will argue that much of what the typical post office offers could now be done online. Yet who can send a parcel digitally? Or pay out pensions to the elderly and vulnerable who, even if they do own a laptop or tablet, might be very wary of parting with personal financial information.

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There are solutions. And there are ways to make the post office relevant and reactive to modern life. For example, the CWU argues that it could become the base for the “people’s ethical bank” which Labour has talked about setting up to counteract the stranglehold of traditional banking over personal finance.

It already offers a very competitive credit card. Did you know that? I didn’t until I was stood in the queue one day and picked up a leaflet. Why doesn’t the Government – or Labour for that matter – really put its weight behind promoting what the Post Office offers, and support all initiatives which would place it at the forefront of everyday life?

Instead politicians seem to be presiding over a programme of managed decline, and those who run the Post Office appear to have assumed a long-term position of denial.

It looks like we have to fight for it ourselves. Industrial action today might cause disruption, but what’s a delayed letter or 
two compared to nowhere to post one at all?