The future of post offices
As a former Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union and a former member of the Council of Postwatch plus a current member of the Board of Consumer Focus and the Chair of the organisation’s Post Offices Advisory Group, I have a long and deep interest in the UK’s post office network.
At its peak in 1964, there were around 25,000 offices; today the number is down to just under 12,000. The problem is that many fewer people are using post offices as the government finds other ways of delivering benefits and other services and consumers make increasing use of Net-based options. In the last five years, the number of visits per week to all offices has fallen from 28 million to 20 million.
Today I went to Gloucestershire and, together with Consumer Focus colleague Richard Brown, I visited three examples of a new type of office called Post Office Local at Brimscombe, Whitminster and Coleford. The first two are located in convenience stores, while the last is located in a garden centre.
You can’t obtain the full range of services at a Post Office Local outlet that you would find at a Crown or subpostmaster office, but about 85% of services are available and the opening hours are very much more extended.
So far this model is on trial – there are currently 51 such outlets in rural locations – but it may be a way of maintaining a post office where the alternative would be closure because the current models are so expensive to operate. I’ll keep you posted.