Hard times for Post Offices

Deborah McGurran Editor, Politics Show East

Essex County Council's rescue plan for its post offices has just swung into action. We talk to a Sub-Postmaster about his experiences.

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The first post office has just reopened under the "Essex Model", after closing in February 2008 as part of government cuts.

Essex County Council has pledged £1.5m to save around half of the post offices in the county earmarked for closure.

The council hopes it will act as a blueprint for the many councils elsewhere, who have expressed an interest, since it announced its plans in June 2008.

Jim Nott is a sub postmaster in Westcliffe-on-Sea in Essex and here are his views on the government's closure programme and the Essex rescue plan:

I have run Eastwood Boulevard Post Office near Southend for the last 15 years.

We're located in a residential area, and the majority of our customers are either retired people in the area, or pupils and staff from the local High School and college.

The Post Office network has had a hard time over the last few years. Jim Nott

The post office network has had a hard time over the last few years.

Struggle

We all know that post offices provide vital support for local residents, especially older people - but it's been a real struggle of late for sub postmasters to make their post offices profitable.

I think it's partly because a lot of the services we used to offer, like TV Licences, have gradually been removed.

We are currently waiting for the Government to announce whether it will award the Post Office the contract for the Post Office card account, which lots of people still use to claim their pension at the Post Office, or whether we'll lose that too.

Increased over the counter services could increase Post Office usage

It's true that post offices support local communities and their infrastructure, as well as vulnerable individuals: when a nearby post office was shut under the last closure programme three years ago, the neighbouring chemist and hairdressers quickly followed, and what was a thriving parade of shops, swiftly declined.

I think that the best thing the council could do for its post offices would be to offer all local authority services through post offices.

Increased services

I hear from sub postmasters in other parts of the country that their customers can pay for council tax and rents at their post office, as well as school meals, bus passes, disabled badges and even Meals-on-Wheels.

The sub postmasters are able to offer these services because the local council has decided to put them through the Post Office.

An ailing service or a real focus of the community?

If the council were to do this here, it would increase its reach into local communities and local residents, and would boost local post offices' income and footfall to give us a chance of a secure future.

Southend Borough Council tells me that they think it's too expensive to allow residents to pay council tax at the Post Office.

But I wonder why the county council is spending millions of council tax payers' money to keep open one or two unprofitable post offices, when it could make sure ALL local post offices stay open by spending that money putting council services through local post offices?

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