What’s happening to our post office network?
You may have noticed changes in the look or operation or even location of your local post office. Why is this happening? It’s because fewer people are using post offices than in the past and many of the transactions conducted generate low income for Post Office Limited, but customers value having a local post office and the government is keen to maintain the current size – if not the exact shape – of the current network of outlets.
I have been interested in post offices since I joined the Post Office Engineering Union as a researcher in 1978 and worked through mergers creating the National Communications Union and the Communications Workers Union before I took early retirement in 2002. But my support for post offices did not stop: I continued to promote the network through my Board membership of Postwatch and Consumer Focus and through my chairing of the Post Offices Advisory Group which is now hosted by Citizens Advice, the consumer watchdog for post offices.
My Citizens Advice colleague Annabel Barnett has just produced an informative blog posting, explaining how the network is being transformed and examining research which assesses the impact on customers. You can check out her blog here and, if you look closely, you’ll see me in the chair in a photograph of the Post Offices Advisory Network in session.