The Petition of residents, employees in and visitors to the ancient town of Knaresborough and all those seriously concerned about the decision of the Post Office to review the future of Aspin Lane Sub Post Office, 61 Aspin Lane, Knaresborough HG5 8EX.
Declares the importance of this Sub Post Office to thousands of people living, working in and visiting Aspin district of Knaresborogh, and the surrounding areas including the villages of Goldsborough and Flaxby, including the more elderly and disabled; recalls that should this Sub Post Office close there would be only one Sub Post Office serving the whole of Knaresborough and surrounding areas; and reminds Members of Parliament of the number of closures of local sub Post Offices in the Knaresborough area over recent years.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform to make clear to the Post Office the importance of this office continuing as a Sub Post Office, the retention of a second Sub Post Office to serve Knaresborough and the benefit of withdrawing as soon as possible any proposals which put at risk any of the existing services provided from this Post Office.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Mr. Phil Willis, Official Report, 1 April 2008; Vol. 474, c. 737.] [P000164]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform:
The Government fully recognises the important social and economic role of post offices, particularly in rural and deprived urban communities. That is why it is determined to maintain a national post office network that allows people to have reasonable access across the whole country and why it has put in place a new policy and financial framework to achieve this. The Government has invested £2 billion in the post office network since 1999. This investment has, for example, paid for a computer link-up for every post office, as well as support for non-commercial branches since 2003.
In its response to the consultation on the Post Office network, the Government announced confirmation of its decision (in May 2007) to extend funding of up to £1.7 billion to 2011, including provision of £150 million Social Network Payment to support the post office network up to this time. The Government strategy includes provision for 2,500 compensated closures and 500 new Outreach services.
The 500 new and innovative Outreach locations, operated in partnership with other local services (such as in pubs, village halls, churches and mobile post offices), will mitigate closures, primarily in smaller and more remote communities. Nevertheless, to ensure sustainability, there will need to be up to 2,500 compensated post office closures within the defined access criteria.
Post Office Limited (POL) is responsible for implementing the network change programme at a local level. It is developing a rolling programme of some 50 local consultations on detailed area plans, based on groups of Parliamentary constituencies. The first area plans went out to local consultation on 2 October last year and these plans will continue to be rolled out at regular intervals until August, with the whole programme scheduled to take around 15 months to complete. The consultation period for North Yorkshire with Yorkshire East and Keighley finished on 17 January 2008. POL announced their final decisions on 8 February, which is available on their website at www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange.
POL develops its proposals with the participation of sub-postmasters, local authorities and the consumer watchdog, Postwatch. When drawing up its implementation plans, POL takes into account the numeric access criteria set out by Government, as well as local factors affecting ease of access, such as local geography (rivers, mountains etc). POL is also required to consider the availability of public transport and alternative access to key post office services, local demographics and the impact on the local economy. Local consultations provide the opportunity to raise any specific concerns over particular proposals.
The Government does not have a role in proposals or decisions for individual post offices. No decisions on individual Post Offices are taken until after local consultations. Those decisions are made by POL in light of the responses to the consultation, while subject to a four-stage appeals process involving Postwatch. The Review Process for closure decisions after public consultation process applies where Postwatch shows that, for an individual branch:
POL has not given due consideration to material evidence received during the public consultation in coming to its decision or;
evidence emerges from the consultation that the proposal for the branch does not meet the Government’s policy requirements.
The aim of the further review process is for POL and Postwatch to reach an agreed way forward by bilateral review, with 3 stages available at increasing levels of seniority. A recent addition to the review process provides for very difficult cases which remain unresolved after stage 3. At this stage, the Chairman of the Royal Mail Group will review the issues and reach a final decision.