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Post Office
Closures
This week will
see the start of the public consultation into post office closures
in Staffordshire. It is an unfortunate fact that due to losses in
excess of £3 million per week the post office network is
unsustainable in its current state. As a nation we simply do not
use post offices as often as we once did. Changes such as paying
car tax online and getting benefit payments paid straight into
people’s bank accounts, whilst being beneficial to users, have
resulted in there being four million fewer customers per week
compared to just two years ago. With such a drop in numbers a
reduction in post office branches is inevitable though it is worth
remembering that following the closures there will continue to be
more post office branches than all of the banks combined.
It is important
that we do not view the post office purely on a commercial basis
however. There is a real social and community importance attached
to post offices which overrides simple economics. This is why the
Government is committed to providing a subsidy of £1.7bn to ensure
that we maintain a comprehensive network accessible to all.
Without this subsidy a further 7,500 post offices would have to
close. The Government has also been keen to ensure that good
access is maintained to post offices. They have set access
criteria that the post office must adhere to when deciding which
branches are to close. This criteria ensures that 90% of the
population will be within 1 mile of their nearest post office with
this rising to 99% in deprived urban areas. Overall 99% of the
population will be within 3 miles of their nearest post office.
This is not to
say that I do not have concerns about closures locally. On
Thursday I met with representatives of the post office to discuss
the local area plan. This plan caused both relief and
disappointment. Relief that Stockton Brook is not being
considered for closure but disappointment at the planned closure
of Fegg Hayes. This is a closure too far. Our constituency took
the brunt of closures in the last so-called “Network Reinvention”
programme. I shall be supporting residents in the fight to keep
Fegg Hayes open.
Last week
Stoke-on-Trent MP’s also met with the Communication Workers Union
concerned about Royal Mail’s plans to close the Leek sorting
office which serves the ST postcode areas. A sound, efficient
Royal Mail delivery service is an integral part of the
infrastructure serving the local economy. North Staffordshire was
dealt a severe blow 10 years or so ago when business leaders in
Wolverhampton lobbied for a new distribution centre and succeeded
in securing funding for a state of the art facility there. This
left us having to transport large amounts of mail from here to
Wolverhampton down the M6 and back again. Now there is a repeat
scenario and jobs and services guaranteed last time round could
disappear all together. I will be linking up with local MP’s
this week to make the case to North Staffs Regeneration Board,
Royal Mail managers and government ministers that Royal Mail must
invest in North Staffordshire.
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