Can anything be done to save the future of thousands of post offices doomed to close? Charles Hendry, Shadow Minister responsible for Post Offices, makes a convincing case about how they can survive financially, with more support from government and business. You can find out more from his frank interview on Tory Radio.
Can Post Offices be saved?
From a community enterprise perspective, village hubs are providing a possible solution to the Post Office threat. This is where a facility offers a number of services all under one roof – like pub, post office and village shop all together. Perhaps this idea will help make post offices more sustainable (to coin a regen jargon word)
I hope so! I was brought up in one – a village post office and general stores (a “sweet shop” 🙂
My dad was a sub-postmaster.
I learned a few runcible tricks from him. I still like to go into a village post office five minutes before closing time (when they hope all the cashing up for the day is done) and casually say: “Please could I send a telegraphed money-order to Beijing?”. It has the assistant looking exasperated and reaching for the post office manual before I cry “JOKE! JOKE!”. Priceless!
Jim, I doubt if “runcible” was the description that came to mind when you played those kind of tricks! Little did your dad know what fate awaited them.
The money needed to savbe them, £150 million, is a pittance in terms of what the government wastes every day. Broon has lost more than that in his trousers.
However, the closed offices will not be the profitable ones suitable for privatisation; this is the real agenda driven by Leighton and Crozier.
The sad truth too is that the most at risk were originally the Scottish offices as they are remotest. My guess is that politics means these wiil be saved now and it will be those in Tory areas in the South that get hit hardest; typical of New Labour.
cityunslicker – the majority of them – it was 19,500 out of the 20,000 when I was in the Government Relation team at the Post Office are privately owned businesses anyway. There were only 500 or so Directly Manages post offices in the whole of the UK.
This is why it is even more of a scandal. People often in the middle stages of their life invested their savings into a local sub post office as a sort of pension – and the Government has done nothing in the way of helping them compete with new products and services, and has taken away the likes of TV licencing, and benefit payments – with the majority now being paid directly into bank accounts.
In the US our prices just increased again…
Elle, so what do you think of the Dutch answer to NHS rationing. Make a live tv show and you can ‘vote’ which of three patients gets the kidneys being offered by a terminally ill 38 year old.
Next Russian roulette on reality tv
Instead of whatshername and the ‘weakest link’
you have six players and one empty barrel on a revolver. Winner takes all!
Bring back Rollerball & the Colisseum in Rome.
PS – I don’t understand why conservatives would wish to keep open unprofitable post offices – if not enough people use them. Maybe we could turn them into NHS dentists, see the queues grow!
It doesn’t sound very hopeful to me but I like Serena’s “village hub” suggestion.
Welshcakes, Serena dn Q9, how about if Post Offices had a local pharmacy too? That’s also a much needed local facility, especially again, for the elderly.
A post office is often the heart of a village for those who do not frequent the pub. They should all definately be saved. And in cities, getting to one if you are elderly or do not drive is sometimes impossible.