What can you do, once your Post Office is closed?

So, your Post Office has gone.
You could still bring back post office services to your community.

• Post Office closures 'were flawed' according to a report
  
• Find out what your options are for bringing PO services back to your village

The Village Retail Services Association (ViRSA) and Consumer Focus (incorporating the former watchdog Postwatch) have useful information to help you choose among the options. 

Outreach services come in 4 flavours:

To progress any of these options for your community, you should share your local knowledge with Post Office Ltd during the consultation. You'll have good reasons for believing that one type of outreach service would best suit your own community. You will also know more than they do about suitable locations.

Another option is for the community to run its own reduced post office service. The community would pay for a daily collection by Royal Mail, and provide basic postal services.

Find out more about creating a village shop, perhaps including a Post Office from ViRSA, or click here to read about Post Office services in particular.

The last shop, village store and post office closed last year in Blockley, near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. But the Blockley Co-operative Association Limited was formed and Blockley village shop and cafe is now a thriving concern.

Fiona Cowan
6 April 2009                                        Back to top

With grateful thanks to CPRE's Fieldwatch magazine, March 2008.
Fieldwork is free to members of CPRE, published four times a year on recycled paper. Also thanks to CPRE's Countryside Voice magazine, Spring 2009. 

A consultation that closed hundreds of rural Post Office branches was flawed, says a report 

     Hundreds of rural branches were closed

An unprecedented number of people - around 2.7 million - tried to air their views about the controversial closure programme.

But the Post Office failed to engage local residents in reshaping its network of branches, concludes a study by Consumer Focus.

Only one in 13 people directly contributed to the formal decision-making process to close branches, said the consumer watchdog.

As a result, Post Office bosses missed opportunities to obtain valuable local knowledge of how cutbacks would affect communities.

Many consumers were left feeling that the consultation process was a sham, says the report, published on 9 February 2010.

The government announced in May 2007 that 2,500 Post Office branches would be closed.

Many rural branches were replaced by 500 new outreach services - often mobile or part-time branches.

Each closure was subjected to a six-week consultation during which customers could argue that their branch should stay open.

Consultations followed an eleven-week period in which local authorities could seek changes to the proposals.

But less than 20% of consumers were aware that the closure proposals were subject to a consultation to which they could respond.

Poor communication and the short six-week consultation period gave little time to respond, says the Consumer Focus study.

This made it difficult for consumers to engage effectively.        Back to top

Most customers instead took part in local activities such as petitions, which proved far less effective saving branches.

Consumer Focus public services expert Andy Burrows said: "During these challenging financial times, cutbacks in key local services seem inevitable."

He added: "Unless consumers are actively engaged around decisions on essential services, consultations will be more likely to fail."

You can download the full study, How was it for you? Consumer engagement in the Post Office closure programme, as a pdf file.

In future, effective engagement with consumers is essential to ensure any changes to service delivery meet local needs, it says.

Public service providers facing cuts, such as local authorities, should ensure similar consultation meets expectations.

Consumers must be aware of any proposals, how the consultation works and the best way to influence the outcome.

Similar large-scale consultations should be effectively publicised and span 12 weeks, said Mr Burrows.

This would allow enough time for communities to respond and develop alternative proposals to maintain services.

People should be able to respond through a range of convenient means, such as a freephone number or address or in person.

Reproduced with permission from the Rural Services Network

Fiona Cowan                                     Back to top
22 February 2010