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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

25 October 2007

Just about everyone wants to see their own post office stay in business but these days fewer people are actually using their local offices and consequently the network is losing money and the losses of the network are running at £4 million a week and rising.

There are 14,300 branches in total which is more than all the branches of all the banks put together but without continuing Government support the network would come close to collapse.

If the offices were required to operate on a commercial basis some 10,000 branches would have to close which would have a serious impact on communities and that’s why the Government has agreed to continue subsidising the service with up to £1.7 billion until 2011 to maintain a national network and enable Post Office Ltd to modernise and rationalise.

The Government wants the company to limit the total number of closures to 2,500 and to ensure that the vast majority of us will still have decent access to a local post office. At least 90% of the UK population will still be within 1 mile and 99% within 3 miles of their nearest post office.

The PO has now published its list of offices which they consider should close in order to make the remainder more viable and put the network on a more stable and sustainable basis. The re-shaped network will continue to maintain national coverage and the vast majority of branches – more than 80% – will not be adversely effected but that will be of little consolation to those who find their own local branch under threat.

In Dover , the offices in Tower Hamlets, Bench Street and the Duke of York’s School are on the list and in Deal, the Great Mongeham and Upper Deal branches could close. And lastly, the part time office at Capel le Ferne is listed - which is strange because Capel has already fought off closure threats when they succeeded in establishing a community post office in their Village Hall by their own efforts.

Earlier in the year, a 12 week national consultation was conducted on the general measures being proposed and the responses resulted in a number of changes being made to the criteria. Now Post Office Ltd are consulting locally on their proposed closure list.

I’ve had meetings with PO executives and I’ve expressed my opposition to closures in my constituency but I want local people to express their particular concerns about the impact that the loss of their own offices will have – especially on disabled people and the elderly and that’s why I’m conducting a survey of people’s views for forwarding to Post Office Ltd.

At this stage in the process, petitions and marches will have no effect on the PO but they will have to take heed of constituent’s specific concerns. There’s little prospect of saving all our post offices but the more responses I receive – the more ammunition I will have to fend off the worst of the proposed closures.