Keeping you posted

This morning, I spent two hours at London’s City Hall – a really impressibe building by Tower Bridge – attending a meeting of the London Assembly’s Health and Public Services Committee. I was there as the Chair of the Greater London Region of the consumer watchdog Postwatch to answer questions – together with four other witnesses – on the Committee’s inquiry into the future of the post office network.
In Britain as a whole, there are around 14,300 local post offices, but the Government has recently announced the planned closure of around 2,500 of them (although some 500 outreach schemes will also be introduced) because they are losing about £4M a week.
In London, there are currently about 850 post offices and the closure programme might result in some 150 going. All this is going to keep me busy for the last year of Postwatch’s lfe (the Government is going to merge the organisation with two other consumer bodies).
You can access a webcast of the hearing here.


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