THE POST OFFICE

The cold statistics will tell you that between October 2007 and January 2009 around 2,500 Post Offices were closed across the UK, of which 216 Post Offices were closed here in Wales – mostly but not exclusively in rural areas. There are 971 Post Offices (2008 / 2009) in Wales; Post Offices have been closing at a faster rate here in Wales than in other areas of the UK, with a 13% reduction in Post Offices in Wales last year, compared to 12.3% in England, 9.75% in Scotland and only 7.61% in Northern Ireland.It is worth remembering that since New Labour come to power in 1997, some 4,000 Post offices have been closed, some 3,000 Post offices were closed by the previous Conservative administration.

Post Office Ltd can say that its closure programme affected less than 1% of the population and that they aimed to improve the ranges of services offered to customers, make their branches more viable, etc. Research for the report from focus groups around Wales, showed that people want their local Post Offices to stay open and that people wanted a personal face-to-face service in their local community, rather than having to access services on-line or over via the phone.

A Consumer Focus Wales report revealed that older consumers who were forced to move to another post office complained about experiencing longer queues and an impersonal service. The report noted that those with health problems found it difficult to queue for long periods or to walk the extra distance to the new post office without assistance. It was also noted that the closure of the local post office led to far fewer opportunities for social interaction, with people reporting an increase in isolation and loneliness. Rural and small town Post Offices play a very important role in our communities which goes well beyond the provision of postal services. It is important that all essential local Post Office services can be easily accessed locally by older people within their own communities.

Let’s not forget that Labour Ministers and backbench MPs in Westminster (Wayne David [Caerphilly], Jessica Morden [Newport East] to name but two) happily voted in favour of the closure of Post Offices, whilst at the same time pretended to campaign in their constituencies in favour of keeping threatened Post Offices open. They may or may not have considered the full implication the on-going programme of Post Office closures as they trooped obediently through the voting lobbies at Westminster before the vote – perhaps not!

When Polling Day comes the electors should not forgive or forget this government’s (or the previous Conservative governments) role in decimating our Post Office network, if the rundown of our rural and small town Post Offices continues and more are forced to close down then many thousands of more vulnerable older people could become more isolated from the local community in our urban and rural areas. There is a need for Post Offices to modernise to make them more financially viable, but, it is important to remember that this Labour Government began closing the Post Offices without adequately exploring how Post Offices could expand their services and was merely following the line adopted by the previous Conservative Governments.

IT does not have to be this way, recently In Monouthshire Usk, Caldicot and Magor post offices were 3 out of the 75 post offices across Wales to be awarded grants from the Post Office Diversification Fund. Most people and most political parties recognise that Post Offices play a vital roll at the heart of their communities and are real lifelines to vulnerable people.

The Post Office Diversification Fund is planned to run for three years and has been set up to offer help and advice with advertising, marketing, business advice, training and setting up new services for customers. The fund can also help with improving access, security and upgrading computer equipment, etc. This is the Plaid driven One Wales Government helping to deliver improvements to important services in our communities, which makes a pleasant change by way of comparison with recent Westminster Governments.