It is not a numbers game
The government today published its proposals for the future of the post office network. This involves the closing of 2,500 post offices and that is not good news, even though it is generally accepted that some pruning was necessary for the good of the network as a whole.
The whole issue has quickly been whittled down to the number of post offices that will be closed. This misses the point.
The focus of the debate should not be on the number of post office buildings that can be maintained but about ensuring everyone has at least reasonable access to post office services. If a number of expensive to run post office buildings can be replaced with a cost-effective mobile service doesn't that make sense?
Postwatch will study the consultation document carefully but one of our initial concerns is that the DTI have not explained in its document how unplanned closures will be prevented. There are known to be more subpostmasters who want to accept compensation than there are those will get it.
Commonsense suggests these people have accepted they are leaving the industry and are might well decide to go. If the post office they are leaving is a loss-maker it may be difficult to organise for anyone to take it over. This could leave a gap in the network.
Postwatch Press Release
Postwatch background briefing
The whole issue has quickly been whittled down to the number of post offices that will be closed. This misses the point.
The focus of the debate should not be on the number of post office buildings that can be maintained but about ensuring everyone has at least reasonable access to post office services. If a number of expensive to run post office buildings can be replaced with a cost-effective mobile service doesn't that make sense?
Postwatch will study the consultation document carefully but one of our initial concerns is that the DTI have not explained in its document how unplanned closures will be prevented. There are known to be more subpostmasters who want to accept compensation than there are those will get it.
Commonsense suggests these people have accepted they are leaving the industry and are might well decide to go. If the post office they are leaving is a loss-maker it may be difficult to organise for anyone to take it over. This could leave a gap in the network.
Postwatch Press Release
Postwatch background briefing
posted by Anonymous at 2:49 pm
7 Comments:
Post Offices (urban and rural) are more than just service centres for Royal Mail products. Among other benefits, they attract trade to other local businesses. Look at the way local trade and the area goes downhill when a local post office closes. Limited access to mobile offices is no substitute for a local facility.
Can't there be a study of how to make The Post Office profitable? And can't the government be persuaded to reinstate the businesses it's taken away - and maybe add more?
Has Postwatch studied the problem and/or made its views known BEFORE the government published its proposals? And are PW's views published? (The link you provide doesn't work.)
We all know it's more likely than not that decisions have already been taken by government once it's gone public. Only a mass public demonstration of displeasure will have any chance of getting any reconsideration.
This is Beeching all over again. Just wait, like the railway, we'll end up with limited geographic coverage and service, full privatisation, and higher prices.
The decsion by Postwatch to work with the Government to pro-activley close down offices in rural areas is a sensible one. However, lessons should have been learned during the 'Urban' reinvention process. Consultation during this time meant nothing as all the proposed closures were fait accompli. Postwatch had a huge role to play last time but had little or no influence in the outcome of decsions.Many profitable offices closed and quite a few hopless cases still exist. Offering sub-postmastwers a load of cash to close is not exactly a way to deter closures, especially when the profile of most subpostmasters is 'near retirement' age anyway.If you have any sense you will use the current period to negotiate your role carefully with DTI. Don't let yourself in for the role as scape goat like you did last time. You did all the work yet the public and parliamentatrians all heaped scorn on your efforts.
Postwatch will use the consultation period to call for a sustainable network that's fit for the future. While Postwatch's remit extends only to postal services, we will shortly publish research that suggests that it's easy to underplay the community role outreach services can play, particularly hosted and partner services.
Postwatch also commissioned major research on customer needs in rural and deprived areas, addressing the value of post offices and the impact of their loss. You can receive a full copy of this report by contacting our Press Team on 0207 259 1239.
Postwatch agrees that lessons must be learnt from Urban Re-Invention, where the closure of post offices according to subpostmaster preference created unplanned gaps in the network. Any change programme resulting from this consultation should first and foremost be driven by an assessment of local needs- post offices shouldn't close where customer access to post office services are threatened.
Postwatch is of course keen to play a strong role in the local consultation process, and will work hard to ensure that customers' access to post office services are retained, where Post Office Ltd proposes the closure of a local post office.
On your point about the consultation process being a fait accompli, Post Office Ltd themselves comment that they deferred from entering proposals into Urban Re-Invention because of the arguments made by Postwatch amongst others. Many of these arguments simply wouldn't have been made with the consistent, detailed investigations undertaken by Postwatch. Postwatch helped reduce the number of proposed closures under Urban Re-Invention by 500.
Postwatch helped to reduce the amount of closures during the Urban Reinvention process by 500? Now that would make a nice press story!!!
Maybe you could go on record and list all of the post offices that were subject to consultation, and the ones where Post Office Limited withdrew their plans?
In November 2004, David Mills, then Chief Executive of Post Office Ltd, told the Trade & Industry Committee that consultees about individual changes to the network under Urban Reinvention included:
‘MPs, local authorities, local representatives, local organisations that have an interest in the Post Office, as many stakeholders as we can find who would represent a view to us that can be focused down on PW, so that PW can come back to us. We were set up on the closure of 3,000 urban post offices. We have halted that at roughly 2,500 because we found 500 locations where the arguments against what we were doing were compelling when the consumer interests were taken into account.’
Postwatch believes that the important thing is to learn the lessons from Urban Reinvention, and ensure that we have as robust a consultation process as possible for any future change programme.
Postwatch worked hard under Urban Reinvention to ensure that customer needs were met- and that the process under which closures were proposed, consulted and decided on were sound. We fully intend to learn the lessons of Urban Reinvention to ensure that we play an even more effective role in protecting customer interests this time around.
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