It’s crass of the Post Office to close branches against the backdrop of the Horizon scandal - Andrew Vine

There is a Post Office close to my home where the staff are worth their weight in gold. Go in on any day, and they are to be found patiently helping customers, especially the elderly, or advising people about parcels and when they need to be posted to reach family overseas in time for Christmas, guaranteed delivery of letters or checking passport renewal forms.

Those staff, as cheerful and friendly as they are expert at their jobs, are an essential part of the local community and their Post Office a vital cog in what makes everyday life tick in my corner of Yorkshire.

The people of Sheffield, Rotherham, Bridlington, the Leeds suburbs of Crossgates and Morley, and the Bransholme area of Hull would undoubtedly say the same of the staff in their local branches.

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But not for much longer because those staff will be gone and their Post Offices shut, targeted for closure among more than 100 directly-owned branches nationwide that means hundreds of people losing their jobs and untold inconvenience for countless customers.

The Post Office has revealed that 115 branches are at risk of closure. PIC: James Manning/PA WireThe Post Office has revealed that 115 branches are at risk of closure. PIC: James Manning/PA Wire
The Post Office has revealed that 115 branches are at risk of closure. PIC: James Manning/PA Wire

The closures are bad enough in themselves, but in an act of breathtaking crassness, the Post Office made their impact even worse by choosing to announce them last week as the public inquiry into the scandal of subpostmasters wrongly accused of theft because of a flawed IT system drew to its close.

The inquiry will be damning in its conclusions when it reports next year, given the evidence of dishonesty and incompetence it has heard. Every decent person who has watched televised testimony from shifty, evasive executives desperately trying to cover their backs has surely been enraged by them.

And a public outraged at the injustice of innocent people being criminalised – many made aware of it by ITV’s brilliant and excoriating dramatisation, Mr Bates versus The Post Office – will want to see those responsible held to account.

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The closures and inquiry coming together leaves the indelible impression of a national institution, trusted by generations and valued by customers, brought low by those in charge.

Attempts by the Post Office to put a positive spin on the closures by saying sub-postmasters will get a better deal does nothing to dispel that impression.

Unions condemned the announcement and were right to say it was “as tone deaf as it is immoral”.

Their anger will resonate with the public, for Post Offices are far more than places to buy stamps or send parcels. They are central to community life, and in recent years have also provided essential face-to-face financial services, plugging the gaps left by relentless rounds of bank branch closures.

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Were it not for Post Office banking hubs that have sprung up across Yorkshire in places including Otley, Knaresborough, Filey and Withernsea, residents would have no over-the-counter services to manage their money.

The introduction of those hubs is to be applauded, and stands in the great tradition of the Post Office helping customers, but a round of branch closures does not inspire confidence that serving the public remains at the heart of the way the organisation is run.

Yes, it has suffered difficulties not of its own making as times have changed. The number of letters being sent has declined dramatically as online communications have become the norm, and its parcels business has suffered because of private-sector competition.

But the Post Office needs to remain a pillar of both high streets and local communities, and the government should ensure that is the case.

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Ministers cannot shirk responsibility for this. The government owns the Post Office and should not be complicit with its arm’s-length management in closing branches or cutting the jobs of the exceptional staff who work in them.

Nor should it be the business of the government to follow the example of the major banks by destroying face-to-face services, leaving empty and boarded-up branches that disfigure shopping streets and add to the sense of decline that afflicts so many places in Yorkshire.

In opposition, Labour was critical of wave after wave of bank closures. In government, it surely cannot advocate a similar fate for Post Offices at a time when town and city centres need to hang on to every shop and service they can.

Instead of standing by and doing nothing while Post Offices are lost, the government should be supporting and promoting them.

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It spends money on encouraging people to use publicly-owned rail operators like LNER and Northern and should be doing likewise with the Post Office, pointing out its unique status as a one-stop shop for an unparalleled range of services.

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