Today the Post Office announced the start of its closure programme. This will have a significant impact on community-owned shops and rural life in general. About two thirds of community-owned shops run the post office too. Many of these post offices will face closure or will become outreach centres, offering a post office counter at limited times. In many cases the closure of the post office will also mean the closure of the village shop too. This means that more villages will face loss of services and the resultant loss of community cohesion.
The Post Office programme involves grouping closure proposals by “area plans”. There are 46 such plans and each is subject to a six week public consultation period. To find out more about the Post Office closure programme go to www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange or visit the Postwatch site (the watchdog for postal services) at www.postwatch.co.uk.
ViRSA advises finding out when your public consultation will take place and get involved. Branches will also display posters and leaflets and Postwatch will be active in scrutinising the proposals and raising concerns where appropriate.
Could it be that these network changes become a catalyst to rethinking accessibility and delivery of all services in rural areas? Villages today are faced with the loss of other services too, such as transport, health and information. Can a community solution to retaining services be an answer and bring a greater sense of community spirit to your village? Community ownership may be the solution and the 170 community-owned shops are testament to the success of this model.
There may be ways of retaining some post office services. For example, Brockweir shop in Gloucestershire was not able to become a post office when it opened, and yet it has found ways of providing services nevertheless. Find out more about them by going to our website www.virsa.org and finding them on the shop directory.
ViRSA believe there is an opportunity for the Post Office to offer a “community package” to villages, wishing to retain or introduce services, whereby a restricted range of services can be offered and run by the community with limited cost to the Post Office. Alistair Darling in his speech to the House of Commons announcing the post office closure programme, stated,
“There are currently some 150 thriving community owned shops in the UK many of which already incorporate post offices. And it is clear from the comments received that there is widespread interest in the concept of establishing more.
The government wants to encourage more community run post offices where they are viable. We recognise that the processes can be daunting. The government will therefore work with stakeholders to ensure there is suitable advice available to interested parties and that community ownership is promoted as a possible means of maintaining post office services where other options are not available. We will also expect Post Office Ltd to engage constructively with groups who present a viable case for community ownership in those circumstances.”
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