Post Mortem

We in my ward are very much aware of the effect of Post Office closures. We have suffered two already, though at least the one on the Davis Estate will be replaced by a new Post Office Counter there, due to open next month.

When the branch on the corner of Pattens Lane and City Way closed a few years ago, we ferried older folk who lived nearby to and from another branch every week, on a day and at a time of their choosing. My ward colleague Councillor Nick Brice did the driving, and I assisted in my own small way.

The ladies pictured here with Nick were very pleased at this personal service, and we miss them now that one has died and the other has made alternative arrangements.

More recently, Post Office closures in Britain have been if anything stepped up to a new high, and questions have understandably been asked of Government Ministers in Parliament. Only a few weeks ago, the Conservative MP Nicholas Soames asked the following at Prime Minister's Questions:

The Prime Minister may be aware that the Post Office earmarked four post offices for closure in the Mid-Sussex constituency. It invited a detailed consultation for six weeks, to which there were more than 6,500 replies—all unreservedly in favour of retaining those post offices. On Tuesday, however, the Post Office announced that they are all to be closed. Why does the Prime Minister allow his Government to be party to such a rotten deceit of the public in respect of that consultation?

This was on 30th January 2008. The Prime Minister's reply was:

We have made £1.7 billion [available] to help post offices in this country and we will continue to make money available for Post Office services. There is a process of consultation and an appeals system, although I do not know whether it was taken up. I urge the hon. Gentleman to meet the Minister in charge of the Post Office. We are listening to what people say, but the fact of the matter is that many post offices are not used in any great detail. We will continue to put the money in to help the Post Office service.

Interestingly, according to correspondence that the Leader of Medway Council received from the Post Office's National Consultation Team, just two weeks after the above question was asked and answered, there is no appeals procedure. The key phrase is at the start of the second paragraph on page two of their letter, which can be found HERE.

Not only does this whole "consultation" come across as false, there isn't even any recourse available to the public-at-large, including Post Office customers. Oh, there is a possibility that the so-called "watchdog" Postwatch could ask for a case for closure to be reviewed, but interestingly did not do so for any of the four recent closures in Medway. Make of that what you will...

The whole thing seems to be rigged; but it transpires that at least part of the reason for all these closures is one that has not been publicly stated by the Government (nor by the Post Office itself, but this is a Government matter), and this is that the heavily-subsidised British Post Office is anti-competitive under EU directives. Thus the Government would be being forced to severely cut back this subsidy, in order to open the market up to competitors on a more level playing field. I am grateful to the excellent Dizzy for posting THIS, from which I gleaned this information.

Yet another example of the EU helping to destroy something of value in Britain, and yet another reason why the sell-out over the EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty is so very serious for our nation!