Axe looms for 1,300 post offices

ARTHUR MACMILLAN

SCOTLAND 'S post office network faces devastation this week with hundreds of closures expected to be announced by the government.

Subpostmasters and campaigners last night said more than three-quarters of the country's 1,600 post offices were at risk.

The comments came amid claims that ministers will announce the closure of up to 7,000 sub post offices across the UK .

However, Scotland could be particularly hard hit as 1,300 branches north of the Border are small-scale operations - in both the countryside and urban areas - that fail to make a profit for the Royal Mail, according to the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP).

Smaller rural post offices, which are reliant on government subsidy, are expected to bear the brunt of closures.

George Thomson, the NFSP's leading Scottish official, said: "The postal service could be absolutely devastated by a new closure programme. Four years ago we had 17.5 million benefits customers and now we have four million. There is no point in the government giving us a £150m subsidy with one hand and then taking £168m of contract work away from us with the other. The footfall is declining and that makes it harder and harder to run a business."

Royal Mail has reportedly told the government that half of its 14,400 post offices should be shut to stem financial losses.

It is understood that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) may limit that number, but the closures - to be announced on Thursday - are still expected to exceed 3,500.

Linda Kneller, who runs a rural post office in Conon Bridge , Ross-shire, said: "The last round of closures was targeted at urban offices, so that implies very strongly that it will be rural communities that suffer the most this time. I am worse off than I was when I opened six years ago and the withdrawal of government business has left many offices in a terrible position."

Andrew Gilhooly, the Edinburgh branch secretary for the NFSP, said: "I think it will be devastating, especially in rural areas and urban deprived communities. We are reliant on the government to give us business, but we lost television licences and post office card account numbers are to be cut by two-thirds. It is extremely difficult to set up a retail side in your shop when government action takes away the footfall from your business."

Yesterday the SNP called on the Scottish Executive to challenge the proposed closures.

John Swinney, the Nationalist MSP, who led a debate on the future of the post office network last week, said: "Unless the Executive speaks out, and unless ministers at Westminster listen, the UK government will be responsible for delivering a body blow to economic and social activity in communities in Scotland ."

The expected closures would have a devastating impact in the north of Scotland , according to the Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness , Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Danny Alexander.

He said: "If the reports are accurate that the government is planning to close between 2,500 and 7,000 post offices, then ministers are planning to deliver a devastating Christmas gift to the communities all across the Highlands and Islands "

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to epos@lineone.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2006 George Thomson
Last modified: December 18, 2006