Scotland set to lose 600 post offices as Darling says internet taking over

ABOUT one in six post offices across Britain - up to 600 in Scotland - will close within 18 months because the network is losing too much money, ministers announced yesterday.

Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, told MPs that 2,500 small and rural post offices, out of the nation's 14,263, would be closed by mid 2008.

The move has provoked dismay among post office workers, who claim the service provides a lifeline to rural communities.

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But Mr Darling said taxpayers would no longer prop up a network that was losing 4 million a week - twice as much as it was losing last year - with some post offices serving just a handful of customers a day.

Instead, he proposed 500 mobile post offices - travelling vans that would serve rural customers on set days.

He also announced an investment package worth up to 1.7 billion, designed to preserve the national network.

The annual 150 million subsidy to help rural offices to stay open will be extended beyond 2008 until at least 2011, with an expectation that continuing financial help will be needed.

But post office workers claim the government could save the network if it stopped cutting off business and allowed the post offices to do more.

It was not clear last night how many Scottish post offices will close. Graham Meacher, the secretary of the Scottish region of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, said he had heard the figure of 600 being used, but stressed this was an estimate.

He warned, however, that Scotland was likely to suffer a big hit, because it was more rural and sparsely populated than the rest of the United Kingdom.

He said: "We had been told there might have been as many as 7,000 or more closures across the UK, so I suppose it isn't as bad as that. But we are still very concerned about Scotland because of the high percentage of rural post offices here.

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"One thing we are worried about is loss of business from the government."

Many post offices have lost their roles in processing driving licence applications, television licensing and other parts of government business.

Mr Meacher said the government, as well as local authorities and the Scottish Executive, could help by putting more business their way. For example, he said, post offices could handle speed-camera fines. "We are not looking for handouts; we are looking for genuine business," he said.

Concern was also expressed by rural postal workers. Mary Findlayson, 61, who runs two post offices in the Black Isle, at Duncanston, which she has run with her husband four days a week for the past 30 years, and at Poyntzfield, which she has managed two days a week for 14 years, said she had not been contacted about whether they would be closed.

She said of the Poyntzfield office: "It would be a dreadful shame if it was to shut. We can get up to 20 customers a day and it is a focus for the town.

"There are very few buses and the nearest bank is nine miles away, so it's very important for the old folk. If they close it, it will be just another step in the community spirit being killed."

Mr Darling, however, insisted: "Post offices face a long-term challenge. Internet, e-mail and text-messaging have meant people use the phone or internet banking, cashpoint machines or direct debits to pay their bills.

"People are choosing to access services in different ways, resulting in some four million fewer people using their post office each week than two years ago."

Putting Scottish point of view

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MINISTERS in the Scottish Executive will assess all the post office closure plans for Scotland before sending their views to London.

Jack McConnell told MSPs yesterday that the Executive would study the plans in detail before making a judgment - but this would be purely on an advisory basis because the ultimate decision rested with Westminster.

Ministers will use a number of criteria to assess the closure plans. These will include: will there still be an acceptable level of service?; does the government recognise the post office service is not purely commercial? and did ministers consult properly locally before making the decision?

If the Executive does not feel the plans fit all these criteria, it will make its objections known to the Department of Trade and Industry. However, it was stressed that the issue was reserved to Westminster and the Executive could do nothing to influence the decision, except put its views to the UK government.

The SNP's Christine Grahame appealed to Mr McConnell during First Minister's Questions to make the government aware of the importance of small post offices to rural areas. She said Mr McConnell would be particularly aware of the impact of such closures in rural communities, coming as he did from the island of Arran.

She backed the comments of Tom Begg, the chairman of Postwatch Scotland, who highlighted the importance of post offices not only as places from which to send parcels and letters, but also as a meeting point in communities such as the Borders.

Mr McConnell told MSPs he hoped the government would listen to local communities before taking a final decision. "Proper engagement with the communities, based on the facts, is the way forward," he said.