Memorandum submitted by Daventry and District
Over Fifties Forum (POS 6)
The Post Office Closure Programme for Northamptonshire,
Leicestershire and Rutland was announced at the end of November.
On behalf of the Daventry District Over Fifties Forum I have been
working on the proposed closures in three local villages, Badby,
Newnham and Staverton. I wish the Committee to take note of my
concern at the "Consultation" process.
There is said to be a "pre-public consultation"
period during which the views of key local stakeholders are canvassed.
Despite two e-mail requests and one postal request to the Consultation
Team to ascertain the identities of these stakeholders I received
no sensible reply (not printed here). A further e-mail
approach to Postwatch elicited the information that they were
the only stakeholder to take part in the pre-public consultation
process other than local MPs, who were informed of the programme
one week before the public announcement.
I do not consider this to be a level of consultation
and enquiry consistent with that stated in the published procedures.
Secondly, the response of the Consultation Team
to my enquiries was cynically inadequate. My first e-mail simply
requested the identities of the stakeholders. The response thanked
me for my interest and assured me that my views would be taken
into account. My second e-mail pointed that I had asked for information
which had not been forthcoming and requested it again; this produced
exactly the same response as the first. I then wrote to the Network
Development Manager, Mr Mark Partington, explaining the problems
with my e-mails and asking for the same information. Sixteen days
later I got a printed version of almost the same, obviously automated,
response.
There is in my view an abuse of the democratic
process in all this which leads to a breakdown in public trust
in the Post Office and, by contagion, in other public bodies.
I should be grateful to know that the Select Committee will be
looking closely into the procedures followed in all postal areas
and, if this is a pattern, suspending the programme until it can
be operated transparently and fairly.
BGOP's charter states that "It is acknowledged
by Government, the public sector and society as a whole that a
radical change of perspective is needed if public services are
to meet the challenge of our ageing society".
We do not believe that the Post Office understands
this.
8 January 2008
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