Giving the lie to localism?

Courier Countryside Column for 21 June 2013 under headline:

Post office shake-up may spell end for village shops

The future of our village shop hangs in the balance. The current owners want to sell up, but finding someone new to take over has proved problematic. Part of the difficulty is down to a major reorganisation of sub-post offices which will have far-reaching implications for dozens of villages in the south east and in the country at large.

Currently the postal part is a separate entity within a village store. The postmaster - often the shopkeeper - is paid a retainer plus a percentage of sales. This can typically amount to some £10,000 a year. Hardly enough for a post office to survive entirely separately, but an important additional income for a small shop.

Now, however, Post Office Ltd is embarked on a massive restructuring known as Network Transformation.  Over the next two years 2000 sub-post offices will become ‘Locals’. The separate ‘fortress’ position will disappear and transactions will take place over the counter, alongside shop sales. The Local will be stripped of many roles, including handling international parcels and domestic ones over 20kg.  The ability to pay bills manually will go, as will passport, car tax and DVLA services. And, most importantly, the retainer paid to the shopkeeper will also disappear.

Quite apart from the potential inconvenience for customers of mixing post office transactions with shop sales at busy times, it seems likely that the reduction in revenue could be the nail in the coffin of many rural stores. Post Office Ltd argue that the loss of retainer could be made up from increased sales as the new Local will be open whenever the shop is, including possibly evenings and weekends. Shopkeepers I know say there’s no demand for longer opening hours in small villages and they wouldn’t be economic.

As a boy I had the choice of a dedicated post office plus three village shops. Recently our parish council, reluctantly, supported plans for the last but one of those to change to residential.  

Everyone agrees the sole remaining shop forms an important part of the community and is vital for the elderly and people without cars. But it’s already touch and go whether it will survive. Without the post office revenue, its chances could be further diminished. Perhaps central government should start to see small rural post offices as an indispensible social resource rather than purely profit centres.

www.kentcountrymatters.blogspot.co.uk