Enderby EYE

the village ...and beyond

Customers urged to sign Enderby Post Office petition

15 May 2006

Enderby Post Office

Enderby Sub Post Office customers are being urged to sign a petition at the Mill Street shop to help prevent losing the facility. The post office network is currently under considerable pressure, due to long-term lack of investment, trends in retailing, car use and technological innovations. The petition is backed by the National Federation of SubPostmasters.

The Government's decision to pay state pensions and benefits straight into accounts has also had a serious impact. These combined pressures have resulted in large numbers of post office closures. Over the last 20 years, one third of UK post offices have closed. The Post Office Card Account (POCA) scheme is at risk from discontinued Government support.

All 14,500 Post Offices in Britain have received copies of the petition as part of the Federation's goal of securing more than three million signatures in total.

With over 90% of the population living within one mile of a post office, as with Enderby, the post office provides easy access to essential services including mailing, access to cash and retail goods. The majority of outlets are sub post offices, run by private business people, subpostmasters.

Subpostmasters are not Post Office Ltd employees, but instead have a contract with Post Office Ltd to provide services using their own premises and staff.

Generally, subpostmasters receive a fixed payment from Post Office Ltd, this is topped up by a variable payment based on the number of transactions they carry out. Most subpostmasters run their post office business under the same roof as another retail business.

In urban areas this is often a newsagent or stationery business. In rural areas it is typically a village shop. Post offices offer a wide range of services including;

Postal services
Banking
Bill payments
Benefits and pension encashments
Driving licence applications, car insurance, tax discs
Passport applications, Bureau-de-Change and travel insurance
Telephone service, phonecards, mobile phone vouchers, E-top ups
Personal loans
Savings stamps
Home insurance
Postal orders and MoneyGram
Local travel tickets
National Lottery tickets

There are 15,000 UK post offices and the post office network is the country's largest retail branch network

In recognition of the major challenges facing the UK's post offices, the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Office to draw up a strategy for the future. This resulted in the publication of a report in 2000, Counter Revolution - modernising the post office network, which set out a blueprint for the network:

Urban post offices

Both the Government and Post Office Ltd accepted there was a need to close substantial numbers of urban post offices in order to create a sustainable business for the Post Office Ltd and subpostmasters. This led to the urban network reinvention programme, which resulted in the closure of around 2,500 post offices in urban areas by spring 2005.

Rural post offices

Post Office Ltd has made it clear to the Government that, without financial support, it would have no choice but to close large numbers of rural post offices, keeping only those that are commercially viable or necessary to meet Royal Mail's postal licence obligations. As a result, the Government has agreed to fund the non-commercial element of the company's business until 2008. The Government has also imposed a 'no avoidable closures' of rural post offices requirement on Post Office Ltd, this applied initially until April 2006.

Some of Government's funding to sustain rural post offices is specifically for helping Post Office Ltd to pilot new ways of providing post office services. This includes trials of 'hub and spoke' or 'outreach' post office services, where the subpostmasters of the hub post office provides a mobile service at locations such as village halls in outlying areas for several hours a week. Post Office Ltd was due to report on these trials to Government at the end of 2005. Government is due to make decisions on the long-term strategy for the rural post office network in 2006.

The Declaration on the petition reads:

The National Federation of SubPostmasters works closely with both Government and Post Office Ltd to ensure the best possible future for our network of sub post offices. We continue to press for urgent Government action to ensure that UK citizens can access a network of bigger, better and brighter post offices - providing communities with postal, banking and financial services, access to national and local government services and anchorage to local shops.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters launched the petition in April, urging the Government to reverse its decision to end support for the Post Office Card Account, (POCA).

The petition highlights fears held by the Federation, subpostmasters and Post Office customers that the withdrawal of vital services like the POCA will force thousands of Post Offices to close down across the country.

POCA is used by 4.3 million people every week to access benefit payments and is the only Post Office based option for doing so. The Federation believes POCA is being phased out by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in advance of its planned withdrawal in 2010, denying users the right to chose how they access their benefits and threatening the viability of the entire post office network. Users will now have to access benefits via a bank account which many simply do not want to do.

The Federation is working with national groups including Help the Aged and Women's Institute, which have expressed their opposition to the Government's plans on POCA, and whose members value the very important social role that post office network plays for communities and vulnerable individuals.

Colin Baker, General Secretary of the NFSP, said: "We have been driven to launch our petition today by pressure from people who are disgusted by the way their choice to use the POCA has been ignored.

"Pensioners feel misled by the DWP on the POCA, with some given just three days notice that benefits would be paid into their bank account instead.

"The public must voice its opposition to the closure of the POCA to send a clear message that the Post Office network still provides a crucial service to rural and urban communities the length and breadth of the country. It is not too late to save the network but we must act now and work together."

The Parliamentary All Party Group on Sub post offices has also given its full backing to the petition. Kate Hoey MP, Chairman of the All Party Group, said today:

"I fully support the initiative of a petition and I urge everyone to get to their Post Office and show their loyalty by signing it.

"Now, more than ever, Government needs to take notice of what is happening to the nation's dearly loved network of Post Offices. There is universal support for viable and sustainable Post Offices. Removing services and forcing people to go elsewhere flies in the face of previous commitments from Government, and will destroy the network."

And Owen Paterson MP, Secretary of All Party Group on Sub Post Offices, added: "The Government must wake up to the economic and social impact that the withdrawal of the Post Office Card Account will have on urban and rural Post Offices, and publicly declare what they see the network as being for."

The Federation is calling on the public to back its campaign by signing the petition and join a growing body of support for the Post Office network. An Early Day Motion tabled by Kate Hoey rejecting the abolition of the POCA has now been signed by 297 MPs from across the political spectrum, making it the sixth most signed EDM of 1,959 tabled since the General Election last May.

Associated links:

National Federation of SubPostmasters | The Petition (pdf download available)

The Post Office | Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

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