City Post Offices Facing the Axe

i've seen no publicity at all about these closures except for what i've read here. why no big posters up in the post offices? last week there was a mobile unit off church street with several cheerfully dressed staff encouraging benefit claimants to open bank accounts. coincidence?

Re...

sub post offices
21.03.2004 00:00

"i've seen no publicity at all about these closures except for what i've read here."

Well there was an article in this Thursday's Echo, I rarely buy the Echo myself, it was also on BBC North West news and available on the web.

"why no big posters up in the post offices?"

Because opposition is not really wanted? As I said in my comment many people have signed petitions and sent letters to oppose closure of their local sub-post offices with no effect at all. The Sub-Post Office owners don't appear to be that concerned themselves they'll get cash severances to calm their concerns, one example in Old Swan the Post Office mistress was completely dismissive of us gaining signatures on the petitions saying that that post office was not under threat at the moment.

If you look closer at the photo I took last Thursday there are two large light coloured posters in the window which claim that the nearest Post Office in West Derby village is open 6.30am to 7pm which is absolutely untrue, it's the newsagent side that is open at those times, also the same poster claims that that Post Office is also open on a Sunday as well which is untrue as well. Also that Post Office in West Derby village is already massively overloaded with customers on main benefit payments days, queues blocking access to other stops and the bus stop on a Monday morning for example, also meaning that people are forced to queue in cold and wet weather outside. This is nasty bullying tactics to force, yes force, the most vulnerable to get their benefits paid into banks, though to be honest the queues will then just move from the Post Offices to the banks on benefit payment days, many banks already have huges queues already.

"last week there was a mobile unit off church street with several cheerfully dressed staff encouraging benefit claimants to open bank accounts. coincidence?

Absolutely no coincindence at all, the link is so obvious with the threatened closure of the Lyceum main post office, which will put pressure on the St.Johns post office. The banks have closed down numerous branches over the past decade, and the government's idea was to turn post offices into universal banks, the idea of 'encouraging' or in fact more like *FORCING* benefit claimants to have their benefits and pensions paid into a bank account is taking away benefit payments from the post office counters, it is that move that has pushed the Post Office PLC into the red having lost that massive income. A few years ago we saw government ministers raising concerns about the poor not having access to banks accounts, it seems that that was all about laying the ground for the withdrawal of benefit 'book' payments through the post office counters.

Also the banks are laughing all the way to the BANK! Because they'll get all that benefit money sitting in their coffers earning them interest before claimants withdraw it. Incidently in our 'Big Brother' state it potentially allows the authorities to monitor the spending patterns of those on benefits especially if they get a cash card recording all their financial transactions. It has the obvious potential for abuse with tricky questions being raised by the Benefits Agency during interviews.

Sadly there is no co-ordinated campaign to fight the closure of the sub-post offices in Liverpool, the CWU union could have been a central part of such a campaign yet nothing is being done to draw the opposition together, while this lack of collective action continues here in Liverpool we'll not stop the bad things that arise daily.

Of course there's been no publicity. The General Secretary of the CWU has been busy drumming up support for the latest SWP front organisation (Unite Against Fascism) to spend any time on this issue. It's not just Liverpool, it's the surrounding towns. Bloody opportunist Leninist!

this is what the CWU said in February:

06 February 2004
CWU Calls for Fairness in PO Closures

The CWU has called for improvements announced to the Post Office closure consultation process to apply across the entire network.


A 12-point action plan to improve the way the Post Office consults on proposed closures was announced yesterday by Stephen Timms, the minister responsible for postal services. But the improvements will only apply to sub post offices earmarked for closure in the Network Reinvention programme. Plans to close busy city centre Crown offices will not be affected by the 12-point plan, which was agreed by Post Office Ltd and the consumer group Postwatch.


CWU national officer Andy Furey said the government’s intervention was evidence consultation processes had been “a complete and utter sham”. But he added improvements to consultation plans would be worthless if they did not apply to the UK’s biggest and busiest post offices.


“You cannot revise the standards and then apply them selectively. If a popular Crown office is marked for closure it is only right and proper that the local community is consulted in the same way. Postwatch, as the customer’s eyes and ears in the industry, must scrutinise such closures with exactly the same rigour.


“Stephen Timms has publicly said that in too many cases Post Office Ltd has not handled closures appropriately or with sufficient sensitivity. He is absolutely right to point this out but it is a matter of fairness that the same rules should apply across the network.”


The CWU has been at the vanguard of attempts to save Crown offices from closure or privatisation. Busy city centre branches in Leeds and Liverpool are set to be shut down, while two offices in North London have been earmarked for franchise. Tomorrow (February 7) at noon the CWU is staging a ‘March for Marchmont Street Post Office’. The branch, near Russell Square, is set to be sold off despite the rigorous opposition of local residents.

 http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=641

New research carried out by MORI on behalf of Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services, shows that 94% of customers are migrating to alternative branches following a post office closure. However, customers experience varying degrees of inconvenience and many have to undergo significant changes in behaviour as a result. The aim of this two-phase study on customer migration and adaptation was to gain a better understanding of how customers expect the closure to affect them and how they adapt over time. It reveals that despite having to travel further, most customers rate their “new” post office as good overall and expect to remain post office customers in the future. However, there are a number of improvements they would like to see in the branches that remain. The research also reveals that Post Office Ltd’s method of predicting the alternative branches customers will use following a closure is largely accurate, although it is not an infallible model. Why did Postwatch commission this research? • Postwatch has extensive involvement in Post Office Ltd’s Urban Reinventionprogramme, scrutinising every closure proposal. This is to ensure that, once their “old” post office has closed, customers will still be able to access the essential goods and services that post offices provide. • This involvement necessarily incurs significant investments of both time and money, and it is important that Postwatch’s resources are geared to accurately assessing the impact the closure of a post office will have on its customers. This research was therefore commissioned to ensure our investigations are focused on actual customer needs, and, in turn, to inform our approach to future closure proposals. How do customers adapt? The research reveals that there is good news: • Customers can and do continue to use a post office, as 94% of customers use an alternative post office once their “old” branch has closed. • Many rate a number of aspects of their “new” post office as good, especially helpfulness of staff (82%), appearance (71%) and range of services (82%) available. However, customers have not escaped the adverse effects of closures, and many have had to change their behaviour as a result:
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February 2004 2 • Customers’ ratings for parking facilities and facilities for disabled customers are less positive, as 50% and 35% respectively rated these as poor. • Journeys have inevitably become longer in time and distance, and fewer customers now walk to the post office (down from 70% to 42%). • Many more are now driving (up from 26% to 44%) or using the bus (up from 1% to 11%) as a result. The elderly are particularly affected by this change, as the proportion of elderly now taking the bus has risen to 20% compared to 11% overall. This has had an impact on the cost of getting to the post office, as 42% of respondents find it more expensive. • Some customers (50%) consequently visit the post office less frequently, and may use alternative providers for a number of services previously accessed at the post office. Where do they go? Postwatch was also interested in using this research to assess Post Office Ltd’s means of predicting where customers will migrate once their post office branch closes - a custom-built software modelling system called Netspec. Postwatch hoped to find how well this model works, and consequently the accuracy of Post Office Ltd’s assessment of service provision surrounding a closing post office. This research finds: • Post Office Ltd’s migration predictions are largely accurate as customers, overall, went where Netspec predicted. • In most cases (21 of 29), Netspec correctly predicted the branch that would receive the highest proportion of customers from the closing post office. But: • In a number of instances (8 of 29) Netspec predicted the branch that would receive the highest proportion of customers incorrectly. • There were also a number of cases where the proportion of migration differed significantly from Netspec’s predictions. What does it mean? This research has a number of implications in relation to both Post Office Ltd’s predictions and how customers adapt following a closure: Post Office Ltd’s predictions: • Post Office Ltd’s Netspec is a useful tool for assessing where customers will migrate once their “old” post office has closed. • It cannot be used as the only tool, as there are occasions when other factors – local geographic or social – may not have received due attention, and customers therefore migrate elsewhere or in different proportions than expected. • There are implications on the assessment of capacity at “new” post offices, and on whether Post Office Ltd is making the right closures in order to strengthen its network.
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February 2004 3 Customer adaptation: In adapting to a new post office, customers face both transitional and long-term consequences: • Some “inconveniences” may be a result of the need to get used to the change e.g. respondents stating that the helpfulness of staff is worse may need time to get to know and trust a new subpostmaster. • Potential long-term problems identified by this research (e.g. the extra cost of getting to the post office, dissatisfaction with queues, and the fact that some customers, albeit in small numbers, have stopped going) demonstrate that people can be adversely affected by closures, and effort must be made to address the problems they experience. What will Postwatch do? Despite the difficulties some customers face, Postwatch accepts that for the urban post office network to become viable there must be closures. We want to ensure that what remains are generally “bigger, brighter and better” post offices. We also want to ensure that inconvenience for customers is kept to a minimum and that the needs of vulnerable groups are taken into account. Postwatch is keen to use the results of this research for the benefit of post office customers. We will therefore use this research to inform our assessment of post office closure proposals, when we oppose these and what improvements to post offices we recommend. We believe Post Office Ltd can also learn from this research. We will ask Post Office Ltd to: • Ease the transitional problems experienced by customers. • Encourage investment in those aspects customers feel need improvement, e.g. facilities for customers with disabilities and parking facilities. • Find out why there are discrepancies in Netspec predictions, to ensure that the best system is in place for Post Office Ltd to be successful in establishing a network of viable post offices for its customers. • Further incorporate local knowledge into Netspec predictions. There are others that can help to support the future of local post offices. Postwatch calls on: • Local authorities - to do what they can to ensure parking facilities, particularly for the disabled, are available near post offices. • Subpostmasters – to do what they can to make their premises attractive and accessible to all customers. We can feel more certain about the future of post offices as most people are using alternative branches once their “old” post office has closed. However, where customers identify improvements that can be made, e.g. to facilities for the disabled, it is important to take advantage of available funding to address these. • Customers - to “use it or lose it”. The future of post offices ultimately depends on their customers, and people must support what they view as an important local service.

you can read the full Network Reinvention programme here:
 http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:Ewtji4EFXdkJ:www.postwatch.co.uk/pdf/Research/17.2.04Urnban_reinvention_research_customersfinal%2520report.pdf+network+reinvention+programme&hl=en&ie=UTF-8