| Post Offices: Campaign Against Further Threat
MP Pete Wishart has been presented with campaign cards collected at the Post Offices by Postmasters from all over the constituency during mid June. The campaign, which is being led by the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), aims to raise awareness of a further threat to the existence of thousands of Post Offices as a result of The Post Office Card Account (POCA) being under threat.
The Westminster Government is currently deciding which company will operate the successor to the Post Office Card Account from 2010. Post Office Ltd has made a strong bid, but it is far from certain that it will win the contract. If the Government does not award the contract to Post Office Limited, the post office network will go into further decline. This of course is happening at a time when several branches in Perth and North Perthshire are proposed for closure.
3,000 More Closures Possible
The NFSP estimates that the loss of card account income and associated customer numbers will force 3,000 more post offices to close.It has supplied subpostmasters across the UK with posters to display in their offices and postcards for customers to complete for return to local MPs. The Federation hopes that the pressure placed on the Government will help push the Government towards ensuring that the Post Office can continue to operate the Card Account.
The campaign urges MPs to support a motion in the House of Commons that calls on the government to recognise that the Post Office is best placed to continue operating the Card Accounts as a Post Office product and that retaining the service is vital to the future viability of the Post Office network.
Pete Wishart has given his support to the motion and intends to deliver the many hundreds of cards he has already received, and the hundreds more still being collected, to 10 Downing Street for the Prime Minister. The MP believes that with such a response in only a couple of weeks that the final numbers of cards he receives will represent one of the biggest supported campaigns he has seen in Perth and North Perthshire in recent years.
Commenting the MP said: “I have been overwhelmed by the interest in this campaign shown by constituents. I have been handed hundreds of cards by local postmasters and constituents, and my mailbag is literally full of cards supporting the Post Office.
“It is simply unbelievable that, at a time of Post Office closures and pressure on this vital community network, the Government is heaping even more pressure and uncertainty onto hard-pressed Postmasters.
“It seems that it is not enough to close thousands of Post Offices and Labour Ministers seem intent on pulling the rug from under those that are left.
Reprieve Under Threat
“For years the Westminster Government has completely failed to come up with a coherent positive policy to map the future for Post Offices and has instead removed service after service from the network.
“Over the last few years Government departments have been actively pulling customers away from the Post Office by aggressively pursuing direct debit as a preferred form of payment, even in cases where customers would have preferred to stay with Post Offices, other services such as TV License payments have also been removed.
“The Post Office Card Account did provide some reprieve from the pressure placed on Post Offices but now even that is under threat. The Labour Government seems absolutely intent on forcing the demise of Post Offices - and that has to stop.”
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