Published: 22 May 2007
If you don’t live near a town – Tough!
The government has been busy spinning a gloss over its announcement to close thousands of rural post offices.
It claims that ‘Investment, stronger protections for local communities and more outreach services are at the centre of the Government's £1.7 billion proposals to maintain a national Post Office network and put it on a sustainable footing for the e-mail age’.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling claims that its policy / strategy of shutting thousands of post offices has ‘strengthened further the protections for customers in rural and remote areas and widened the areas that will qualify for special protections for deprived urban communities’.
The government claims that the current size of the network is unsustainable with losses rising to £4 million every week, despite an annual subsidy of £150 million and total investment of £2 billion since 1999.
In an attempt to pass the blame on to someone else, it claims that ‘it will be for Post Office Ltd to draw up local area plans within the national framework. That will be done with input from local authorities, MPs, the consumer protection body Postwatch and sub-postmasters, for consultation with local people’.
Postwatch will also monitor future decisions on the shape & size of the network to ensure Post Office Ltd continues to comply with the national framework.
In the longer term, the Government claims it is working on proposals to devolve greater responsibility for future decisions on post offices to a local level, and will investigate what role local authorities and the devolved administrations could play in decisions on future services and funding. (Thus trying to ensure it cannot be blamed for any future cuts, although it knows full well that these other organisations do not have any spare funding and will thus have to close even more post offices in the future when the annual subsidy ends in 2011).
The strategy not include decisions on individual post offices. These will be taken by Post Office Ltd after their local area consultations.
The key elements of the strategy include:
· Investment of up to £1.7 billion, subject to state aid clearance, to support the network and keep it national, plus a continuing annual subsidy of up to £150 million a year up until 2011 (After which time it won’t have responsibility for cuts)
· In light of consultation, the minimum access criteria will now apply to all 2,800 postcode districts without exemptions. Access criteria protecting urban deprived areas will apply to the 15% most deprived urban areas rather than 10%
· In applying the criteria, Post Office Ltd will be required to consider the availability of public transport and alternative access to key post office services, local demographics and the impact on local economies. The introduction of these additional factors addresses widespread concerns from respondents to the consultation
· Post Office Ltd will also take account of local conditions such as rivers, mountains and valleys, motorways and sea crossings to islands
· Post Office Ltd will set up 500 new 'Outreach' outlets for small remote communities - including mobile post offices and services in village halls, community centres and pubs
· Support to enable the Post Office to expand financial services for customers including a roll out of up to 4,000 free-to-use ATMs across the network
· A new account will be introduced to succeed the Post Office Card Account - available nationally and on the same basis as now. The Government will tender for this service in accordance with EU rules, and
· Local consultations on an expected 2,500 post office closures, within the access criteria. Local authorities, Postwatch and Sub-postmasters to input to area plans drawn up by Post Office Ltd and it is expected these would be implemented over an 18 month period from Summer 2007
Post Office Ltd will be required to apply the following national access criteria:
· Nationally, 99% of the population to be within 3 miles of a Post Office outlet and 90% of the population within 1 mile
· 99% of the population in deprived urban areas to be within 1 mile
· 95% of the total urban population to be within 1 mile, and
· 95% of the total rural population within 3 miles
In addition, the following criterion will apply at the level of every individual postcode district, establishing a minimum level of coverage at a very local level:
· 95% of the population of the postcode district to be within 6 miles of a post office outlet
Further information
Postwatch
Post Office Ltd
BBC Action Network
Commission for Rural Communities
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