Memorandum submitted by Lincolnshire County
Council
RESPONSE TO
HOUSE OF
COMMONS BERR SELECT
COMMITTEE POST
OFFICE CLOSURE
PROGRAMME REPORT
Lincolnshire County Council have been actively
engaged with the consultation process recently undertaken by Post
Office Ltd. The County of Lincolnshire has been affected by 43
Post Office closures, 26 of which will be replaced with an Outreach
service.
The Council welcomes the report from the Business,
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee titled "Post Office
Closure Programme", and is pleased that the Committee has
listened to the concerns of Local Authorities and other organisations.
However, the Council has a number of concerns about how the recommendations
from the report will be implemented in Lincolnshire where the
closure programme is in its final stages for two thirds of the
County.
Lincolnshire County Council expects to know
how Post Office Ltd will address these recommendations, which
are contrary to the wishes of the Select Committee. As such Lincolnshire
County Council demands that Post Office Ltd provide information
as to how it will take action to implement the recommendations
of the report as outlined below.
LOCAL ECONOMIES
The rural nature of Lincolnshire means that
many post offices are situated within other businesses. The Committee's
report clearly states that:
"We believe that there should be a presumption
against closing a post office where this is the last shop in the
village".
The Post Office closures in Lincolnshire have
resulted in at least 23 closures which are co-located in another
business. Many of these are the only shop in the village, for
example, Great Hale, Rippingale and North Kelsey. Many of these
could inevitably result in the closure of the shop due to the
Post Office closure. This is going to have a dramatic impact on
all communities affected in this way, as access to any of their
local commercial facilities will be taken away.
A further concern relates to paragraphs 36,
37, 38 and 39 of the report regarding the compensation that a
Sub Postmaster will receive if they continue to deliver competitive
services from his business. The Council agree with the Co-operative
Retail Trading Group's comment that "the Post Office is trying
to reduce competition and acting against the consumer interest".
The Council would like some clarification on
how the recommendations from the Committee around local economies
will be considered for these post offices in Lincolnshire. It
is not acceptable for these recommendations to be ignored for
post offices because they are in the first round of closures.
We would expect to see some specific work to show that these recommendations
have been taken into account, and any relevant changes made to
the plan.
ALTERNATIVE SUPPORT
FOR POST
OFFICES
The experience of Lincolnshire County Council
has been that Post Office Ltd has so far not been open to proposals
for local support for Post Offices. Although discussions have
taken place in the County around this issue, Post Office Ltd have
not been willing to share the necessary financial information
required to allow organisations and communities the opportunity
to put forward serious proposals. The Minister commented:
"Post Office Ltd is currently putting in
place a process for responding to serious expressions of interest
in maintaining post office service provision at specific offices
by means of community or local government funding".
The Council welcome this process, but this process
should also be applied for those post offices in Lincolnshire
which are currently having these conversations with Post Office
Ltd. Until now, expressions of interest have not been welcomed
from Post Office Ltd, and have been difficult to move forward.
The Council would like to know what this process will involve,
and how this can be applied for those post offices in Lincolnshire
which have received interest from local funders.
THE CONSULTATION
PROCESS
Lincolnshire County Council has expressed concerns
numerous times to Post Office Ltd about the effectiveness of the
consultation process used in this programme. The Committee's report
reflects these concerns and highlights the main points that the
Council would like to be addressed, especially in future consultation
periods.
The Council strongly agree that:
"The closure programme is not just about
the commercial needs of Post Office Ltd—it's also about
the needs of communities served by individual sub-post offices.
If people are to respond sensibly to proposals to close a particular
sub-post office, they need to know why that branch has been put
forward for closure".
It should be noted that those communities affected
by the area plans in Lincolnshire have not been given a fair consultation
process, with no information given on the nature of outreach services
to be provided. Post Office Ltd should be prepared to revisit
these services, and hold further consultation if necessary giving
specific information on the service to be provided.
The Council request some clarity from Post Office
Ltd on the message that will be given to communities when an Area
Plan is released, to make clear that they are being consulted
on whether the right post office is being proposed for closure,
not whether post offices should close in the area. There should
be clear and direct information given to the public, and we would
like to know what changes will be made to the future consultation's
to achieve this.
OUTREACH SERVICES
Lincolnshire is currently expected to receive
26 outreach services. The report acknowledges that "a single
outreach session of two hours a week is generally unacceptable".
The Council agree with this view point and seek clarity from Post
Office Ltd and PostWatch that this recommendation will be acted
upon with the minimum level of service being offered (two hours)
being increased across the outreach solutions in Lincolnshire.
Accessibility has been a key problem for ensuring
that post offices are available to all in Lincolnshire, especially
for the vulnerable and elderly populations. The Council strongly
agree with the Committee that:
"we are far from convinced that Post Office
Ltd itself is fully engaged with the need to ensure that services
are accessible to all. This needs to be given much higher priority".
In the recent announcement of the outreach services
to be delivered in Lincolnshire, Post Office Ltd proposes to park
mobile vehicles in lay-bys in rural villages. In many cases this
is not an accessible place for a mobile service, a number of concerns
exist around availability, road safety and accessibility. The
Council would like to know how Post Office Ltd are going to ensure
that these issues will be addressed.
FUTURE CONSULTATION
Lincolnshire will be affected by closures in
a further area plan in June 2008, when the districts of South
Holland and Boston will be included in the Cambs, Herts and Beds
Area Plan. We do not want to repeat the unacceptable process which
has taken place in the East Midlands and East Yorkshire Area Plans,
and ask that Post Office Ltd implement the recommendations from
the report to prevent this.
We look forward to hearing from Post Office
Ltd and PostWatch with responses to how the recommendations of
The Committee will be implemented in Lincolnshire.
28 February 2008
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