Reason we want to axe all these PO branches

Jul 24 2008 by Gordon Robertson, Hamilton Advertiser

The latest round of regional post office consultations began this week in Lanarkshire. While I know that no one wants to see Post Offices closing, it is clear that as a society we are using them a lot less as more and more services become available online.

As a result, the Post Office has been losing custom and losing money. There are now about four million fewer customers a week compared to a few years ago and the network is losing half-a-million pounds every single day. In fact, if it wasn't for subsidies by the Government, thousands more branches would be under threat.

In Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, 1.2 million customers are currently served by 284 branches. The Post Office proposes to close 44, to replace a further seven with an outreach service - retaining a total of 240 branches.

Under this proposal, 91.5 per cent of the population will see no change to the branch they currently use - and the Post Office Ltd will maintain 16 branches which support the only essential retailer in the community and 48 branches that provide the only access to cash in that particular community. A quarter of the closure proposals were changed before the start of the local public consultation.

The future for the Post Office network cannot be about turning the clock back and wishing away the changes in technology and communications that have taken place in recent years - changes that most of us have taken part in, in one way or another. It must be about developing new products and services which attract custom and about ensuring the viability of the network which remains after the current closures.

Pat McFadden, Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs.