Formal Minutes
Thursday 7 February 2008
Members present:
Peter Luff, in the Chair
| Mr Adrian Bailey
Roger Berry
Mr Brian Binley
| | Mark Hunter
Mr Mike Weir
|
Draft Report (Post Office Closure Programme), proposed by the
Chairman, brought up and read.
Ordered, That the Chairman's
draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.
Paragraphs 1 to 37 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 38 read.
Amendment proposed, in line 18, to leave out from
"whole." to the end of the paragraph and add
"Whilst we recognise that the purpose of
the Programme is to ensure that there is a sustainable national
network nonetheless given the large amount of taxpayer's money
funding this scheme we also believe that the need to ensure that
business is transferred from closing post offices to remaining
offices must be balanced against the needs of a community that
is losing its post office. The purpose of the payment is to compensate
post masters for the loss of their post office business. We do
not think it is acceptable to reduce compensation in order to
discourage someone who is losing the Post Office part of their
business from taking on Paypoint, or any other service, that might
help their revenue stream, the survival of the remainder of the
business and provide some facilities to the community." —(Mr
Mike Weir.)
Question put, That the Amendment be made.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Brian Binley
Mr Mike Weir
| | Noes, 2
Mr Adrian Bailey
Roger Berry
|
Whereupon the Chairman declared himself with the Noes.
Another Amendment proposed, in line 27, at the end,
to add
"However, it is particularly important that
Paypoint should not be used by Post Office Ltd as a negotiating
tool for the purposes of agreeing final compensation."—(Mr
Brian Binley.)
Question put, That the Amendment be made.
The Committee divided.
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Brian Binley
Mr Mike Weir
| | Noes, 2
Mr Adrian Bailey
Roger Berry
|
Whereupon the Chairman declared himself with the Noes.
Paragraph agreed to.
Paragraphs 39 to 47 read and agreed to.
Resolved, That the Report
be the Third Report of the Committee to the House.
Ordered, That the Chairman
make the Report to the House.
Written evidence was ordered to be reported to the
House for printing.
[Adjourned till Thursday 21 February at 9.00 am
| 
