Letter from Geoffrey Cox

Last weekend, in a flurry of activity, I left comments on Geoffrey Cox’s website.

Yesterday, I received a reply, which is reproduced in full below.

Proposed Post Office Closures

Thank you very much for your letter about the proposed reduction in services at your local Post Office.

I could not agree with you more about the necessity of maintaining a Post Office in Buckland Brewer and indeed all our local villages.

I have pledged to do everything I can to try and halt the closure of sub-post offices in Torridge & West Devon. In 2006 I organised and delivered a petition of many thousands of signatures to Downing Street and presented it in the House of Commons to the Speaker. I was a strong supporter of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters’ campaign and I have also joined the Conservative Parliamentary Enterprise Group Commission on High Street Shops. Further information can be found on my website at www.geoffreycox.co.uk

I will continue to fight for our Post Offices during this period of consultation and I shall pass on your comments to the Post Office’s consultation team.

In my view, this is the best way in which people can help save their Post Office. It is true that elsewhere in the country, the experience of the Post Office’s consultations has not been good and a few branches only have been saved. Yet, the first justification that the Post Office Limited has used for refusing to contemplate keeping a sub-post office open has been the lack of public response to the consultation.

It is vital that local people should get involved. Many of the decisions to close individual post offices are unexpected, even bizarre. We have to make informed and relevant arguments for the preservation of the threatened branches.

Thank you once again for making me aware of your views.

Yours sincerely
Geoffrey Cox, O.C., M.P.

I’d like to keep this site and the campaign free from party politics. I’m please that Mr Cox responded quickly. However, he didn’t say much more than I thought he would and this looks very much like a form letter.

In reality, Cox has little or no power to change the Post Office’s decision. He’s the wrong party, not that it has helped campaigners in the right constituencies.

Nevertheless, his office can provide guidance on how we take forward the campaign. That is vital.

Geoffrey Cox MP – “Save our post offices”

Our local MP, Geoffrey Cox, is behind the campaign to save rural post offices from closure. He has dedicated part of his website to the campaign.

Whilst the Buckland Brewer post office supporters will want to remain out of party politics, it is very encouraging that our local MP supports our cause.

A difficult aspect of the closure programme is that it can have the effect of pitting one rural community against another. I am sure that Mr Cox has had contact from every village threatened by the closure programme.

I believe that there is a strong case to keep our post office open. However, success in this campaign could be at the expense of another village’s post office.

Government and the Post Office have made clear that an organisation losing £4 million a week (though I feel that we need to return to the veracity of this claim) cannot continue to function in a competitive commercial market. Closures are part of the restructuring process. And, nothing looks likely to stop the closure programme, unless a beleaguered government sees this as a vote winner.

So, our campaign is focused on Buckland Brewer. I am sure that Mr Cox will fight to keep every post office open or at least mitigate the effects of closure where the evidence is overwhelming.

Devon County Council supports rural post office

From the North Devon Gazette website:

Devon County Council has said it deplores the scale of the post office closures and outreach services that were announced by Post Office Limited this week.

Councillor Brian Berman, the council’s Executive Member for Communities… [said]: “The county council confirms its willingness to invest in achieving sustainable post office services for the affected communities.”

As a priority, the council would like to see post office services retained or enhanced:

- In areas where growth in the size of communities is planned or likely.

- Where there are high levels of deprivation and where the loss of a post office could further disadvantage vulnerable people.

- Where the closure would threaten the viability of the only shop in the community, an associated business or other local businesses.

- Where closure will lead to a significant increase in road journeys to access post office services.

As our campaign will make clear, Buckland Brewer ticks all these boxes.

More press coverage

Mopping up some of the press coverage of Devon closures from last week:

• BBC News – Devon closures
• ITV – Westcountry News (should be a video link, with any luck)

Post office closures challenged

A disabled woman in Sussex has challenged the Post Office’s nationwide closure programme. Her legal challenge, which will be heard by the High Court, is based upon the Disabilities Discrimination Act. Disability campaigners have argued that the closure programme violates the law because it discriminates against the disabled.

This is a narrow point of law and probably will not save every post office threatened with closure. But, it does show that campaigning is not a fruitless cause.

BBC News – Disabled women to challenge closure decision

Katie shows how local shops can survive

You may recall that last year, Barnstaple-born Katie Hopkins, who appeared on ‘The Apprentice’ TV programme with entrepreneur Alan Sugar, visited Buckland Brewer to help troubleshoot our shops cash flow issues. She reported for BBC – Inside Out:

Katie Hopkins tells how she changed things around in this web exclusive interview…
“Village Post Offices have always been a matter of contention. Old people seem to love them.

“Young people don’t use them. Governments want to rationalise them. And locals fight for them.”

A direct result of Katie’s advice was longer opening hours and more shop promotions. She showed that local shops can carve a niche and compete with the big supermarket chains.

Head of Royal Mail paid £2 million

The head of the Royal Mail, parent company of the Post Office Ltd is being paid £2 million, reports the Guardian.

Royal Mail’s chief executive, Adam Crozier, will receive a near-£2m payment this summer under the company’s long-term incentive plan, according to the annual report published yesterday…

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: …”This is an outrageous use of public money at a time when post offices and other Royal Mail offices are closing and postal services are being cut back. Adam Crozier is again being rewarded for managing decline instead of improvement in the company. This is a massive insult to Royal Mail employees and the public…”

Royal Mail’s chairman, Allan Leighton, defended the payout. “The payment covers three years during which the group, led by Adam and the team, has consistently exceeded expectations and met all the targets set by the shareholder…”

Post office closure document

A copy of the official post office closure document (pdf document – may take some time to load) is now available at the shop.

It shows, amongst other things, that the Post Office considers our closest alternative branch to be in Abbotsham.

Of course, Abbotsham is totally inaccessible for those in the village who rely on the bus service and a clear indication that the bean counters carrying out the exercise have either not visited the area or do not understand the local geography.

Closure: first reaction

Reaction to the closure programme reported in the North Devon Journal, including words from our shop owner:

Keith Horwell and his wife Anne, have run Shebbear Post Office for eight years and 18 months ago they also took on the Buckland Brewer post office.

Both the couple’s businesses have been earmarked to become outreach offices but Mr Horwell sees this as closure.

He said: “They say this is not closure, but this is not how I see it. I am concerned we are not going to be able to remain open.

“The important thing at the moment is to fight to the death for both post offices.”

However, Mr Horwell is concerned that the Buckland Brewer shop can’t remain open on its own.

“We may have to lose one full-time member of staff and four part-time employees that we care deeply about,” he said. “But the staff here are smart enough to realise that their jobs are in jeopardy.

“In Shebbear we have a strong and sustainable business and the post office is very busy. It is a local centre with local services and closure for this office would mean a great deal of damage to the local economy.”

Mr Horwell has organised a public meeting on Monday June 9 at Shebbear Village Hall at 7pm.

Proposal to close Buckland Brewer post office

The Post Office announced its closure plans for Devon (pdf document) on Tuesday 20 May 2008.

Buckland Brewer post office is slated for closure to be replaced by an ‘outreach service’ (pdf document). For outreach service, read a mobile van offering service 7 hours a week over three days instead of the current 20 hours over five days offered at the shop.

Changes will take effect in August 2008 unless, following the current consultation, the Post Office can be persuaded to change its mind.

As you may know, keeping the post office in the village is vital to keeping the shop open. So, we are faced with a pretty bleak picture. It gets worse. The post office at Shebbear, which is also owned by our shop owner, faces the same fate.

At the Village Hall committee on 21 May, the post office closure was raised and discussed. All present were outraged by this decision, which threatens to tear the heart out of the village.

A public meeting has been suggested and a provisional date of 3 June proposed.

This meeting will allow us to hear from Keith, the shop owner, about what is proposed. He can give us the full picture and to give all of us guidance on how to fight the closure.

Our voices need to be heard. There is an ongoing consultation – links to all the relevant documents are on the Post Office website. The more people who respond the better, though responses need to be evidence based.

Anyone can join this blog to post entries. To request membership please email savebbpostoffice [at] btinternet [dot] com (replace [at] with @ and [dot] with .)

Anyone can leave comments: membership is not required.

Further information : North Devon Gazette article 21 May 2008