Struggle to get to post office
Author: Daily Telegraph - Oct 1, 2009
The number of people who have trouble getting to their local branch has doubled since Labour came to power in 1997.
The report by the Department for Communities and Local Government found one in 10 households – equating to five million people in England – had problems accessing their local branch.
In 1997, when Labour came to power, the figure in the same study – the Survey of English Housing – was less than five per cent.
This is the latest evidence that the decade-long programme of Post Office closures has wreaked havoc on many consumers, many of which rely heavily on the key service, for access to their pensions, paying their bills as well as contact with their neighbours.
Since 1997 the number of post office branches has fallen from 19,000 to 11,500.
The most recent closure programme, which ended in March, saw 2,500 branches shut in just 18 months – the fastest post office closure programme in history, as the Royal Mail, the parent company, fought to reverse crippling loses in its business.
Caroline Spelman, the shadow Communities secretary, said: “These new figures expose the stark effect of the Labour Government’s policies of closing post offices.
"The fact is that Labour ministers don’t care about rural communities and don’t understand the social impact of closing community services.”
Matters were unlikely to improve next year when local shops and pubs which have diversified into postal services would be “taxed out of existence” by a new business rates re-evaluation, she added.
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