Post Office closure programme fundamentally flawed (Newcastle upon Tyne Liberal Democrats)

Newcastle upon Tyne Liberal Democrats <info@newcastle-libdems.org.uk>

Post Office closure programme fundamentally flawed

November 19, 2009 2:00 PM
Originally published by Greg Stone

Lib Dem spokesman for Newcastle East Greg Stone has welcomed a damning assessment of the Government's Post Office Network Change Programme by the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee.

Their report is particularly critical of the consultation process, and states that "local concerns about the scale of the Programme were in effect ignored" because the number of closures had been pre-determined, and warns that this brought the consultation process into "disrepute". The Committee also branded the social and economic assessment of the impact of closures as "inadequate".

The report highlighted that the closure programme was the only part of the Post Office's four part efficiency savings drive expected to make a loss between 2006-07 and 2010-11, and would make the smallest impact on future profitability. The Committee has said that future closures should be a last resort.

Greg Stone said

"This report will come as cold comfort to residents in Sandyford, St Anns, St Anthony's, and Walkerville who have lost their post offices under Labour's closure programme, which the local MP was happy to vote for. It makes for depressing reading about how badly thought out the Government's plans were.

"It was clear that the original consultation process was more about saving face than making any major impact on the programme, and this Parliamentary report mirrors the reaction that was felt across Newcastle at the time.

"It is a testament to the failure of this Labour government that they have allowed the heart to be ripped out of communities, without any real assessment of the social and economic impact, in order to make very limited savings."

"It is welcome that the Government are finally listening to those who argued the Post Office should be given more Government business and that revenue streams should be opened up, but if this had been done when we were suggesting it, these damaging closures may not have even been necessary."

ENDS

Notes:

The report by the Public Accounts Committee published on the 12 November 2009 is available here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/832/832.pdf