Telford could face yet another wave of Post Office cuts warns Tom Biggins, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman. “If Post Office Ltd loses its contract for the Post Office Card Account, it is predicted that a further one in four post offices could close down. This is on top of existing plans to close 28 branches across Shropshire, including Randlay Post Office which I am campaigning hard to save.”
Tom raised the issue at the Shropshire Post Office consultation meeting held yesterday (21st May) at the Shirehall, Shrewsbury, following a series of statements made by the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters. The details released include:
- Loss of Post Office Card Account: The National Federation of Sub-Postmasters has stated that another 3,000 post offices will forced to close if the Post Office Ltd loses its contract for the Card Account. The Card Account is used by four million people each week to access pensions and benefits.
- Further one in four post offices under threat: Card Account transactions bring in 12 per cent of sub-post offices’ income, and one in four of all visits made to post offices each week are by Card Account customers. The Federation has estimated that another 3,000 post offices will go out of business - on top of the current round of 2,500 cuts nationwide - if they lose the right to handle state pension and benefit payments.
- Labour Government to blame: The current Post Office Card Account contract ends in 2010. Gordon Brown’s Government is replacing it with a new contract (so-called ‘POCA2’), but due to EU rules it has to put the new contract out to competitive tender. Conservatives have repeatedly called on the Government to continue the Card Account beyond 2010.
Tom Biggins added: “I am extremely concerned about Gordon Brown’s plans for another wave of Post Office cuts. This would be totally devastating when you consider how many Post Offices Telford has already lost.
“A cloud of uncertainty now hangs over our vital community services. The future of Saturday deliveries is in doubt and local post offices are closing by the week across the country. Our postal service faces death by a thousand cuts – thanks to Gordon Brown.”
- ends -
Notes to Editor:
- The National Federation of Sub-Postmasters warned of new cuts in a press release on 12 May 2008: www.nfsp.org.uk/Latest_PR.asp
- The table below shows the shrinking size of the Post Office network in the last decade. The potential one in four cuts would be in addition to the closures highlighted below:
|
|
1999
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
|
United Kingdom
|
18,374
|
17,546
|
17,204
|
15,895
|
14,556
|
14,376
|
14,219
|
est. 11,700
|
- A list of Post Office closures by Parliamentary Constituency from 1999 to 2007 is available at: www.conservatives.com/pdf/POs-constituencies.pdf
- The Government has previously said that it would like to maintain a network of 11,500 under their regime of subsidies. But in an answer to a Parliamentary Question, the Minister for Postal Services, Pat McFadden, has admitted that under their current access criteria, “Post Office Ltd. currently estimates that the minimum size of network necessary to meet the access criteria is around 7,500 offices” (Hansard, 30 January 2008, col. 418W).
