Post office closures criticised

Jun 16 2006 By Neil Elkes, Birmingham Mail

POST office chiefs let down customers over the closure of branches in Birmingham, according to a damning new report .

Two years ago a city-wide campaign against the closures fell on deaf ears as more than 40 sub-post office branches were axed.

Industry watchdog Postwatch now claims many city communities such as Handsworth, Aston, Northfield, Harborne and Edgbaston have been badly hit.

The claim comes following a survey of hundreds of post office customers by Postwatch Midlands and Birmingham City Council.

The report is particularly scathing about closure of the Shenley Lane branch in Northfield, as the Ley Hill estate has seen thousands of new families move in following regeneration.

Postwatch chairman Richard Ward said: "Our report shows that Post Office Ltd's closure programme was far from perfect.

"We accept the reason for change -there were too many urban post offices competing for too little business.

"However, the way the programme was run - for example closures determined by sub-postmasters volunteering to leave the business rather than designing a network that meets customers' needs - has had a number of negative consequences,"

Key findings revealed 35 per cent of customers of closed branches did not use the alternative branch; 68 per cent with disabilities said travelling to a new post office was now more expensive; 51 per cent of respondents who have disabilities claimed facilities at new branches were satisfactory, but 35 per cent said they were poor.

Post Office Ltd today defended the closures saying they were necessary to prevent the collapse of the entire post office network.

"There was a high degree of planning involved," said a spokesman.

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