Post offices are part of community (From Witney Gazette)

Post offices are part of community

9:00am Wednesday 25th October 2006 in Witney

TWO county post office sub-masters, who went on last week's rally in London, feel the Government is not taking into account people's needs when making decisions.

Martin Barrett and Christine Donnelly, from the Bampton and Great Milton branches, joined the nationwide protest against rural closures and continuing decisions to take services away from post offices. A petition of about four million signatures was also handed to the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mr Barrett, whose customers contributed about 900 names, said: "We want the Government to come up with a replacement for the Post Office Card Account. It started being phased out last year, and will be ending in 2010. We have a high proportion of elderly people in this country, and the Government is ignoring their needs. If you told an 86-year-old lady she had to use the Internet, she would sit down and cry."

Both he and Mrs Donnelly agreed the post office was not only a business, but an important part of the community.

Mrs Donnelly said: "We are an integral part of the British landscape. It's important the Government realises that, and doesn't just take into account the pounds and pence." Mr Barrett said he was no more confident about that issue now than he was before the demonstration. He said: "I don't think this Government has social awareness, and its decisions will have nothing to do with social needs, but purely financial.

"I don't think we will see a Post Office Account Card like the one we have now."

"If you told an 86-year-old lady she had to use the Internet, she would sit down and cry."

Martin Barrett

The Government contributes a £150m subsidy to the running of post offices every year, but that plan comes to an end in 2008.

Out of the 15,000 existing post offices, Royal Mail has said they would only need 4,000 to run an efficient service.

Mr Barrett said that although Mr Blair had talked about the money they put into the service, on Wednesday he neglected to mention the £160m of services the Government had taken away from the Post Office.

In contrast to the trend of closures around the county, a post office was officially re-opened in the city last month.

A new Costcutters store, in Cowley Road, was opened with an integrated post office.

Owner, Gurnam Gill, had to transfer from a smaller premises to include a shop. He said: "The problem with rural areas is there are not as many customers."

But Mr Barrett, who has about 900 customers a week, said: "Without the shop, the post office would do the same amount of business.

"People come to the post office, and don't buy anything.

"Closing the post office would be the end of the shop."