Cumbria County Council : News Releases : 2007 : March : 8/3/2007 - Rural post office threat could kill off social networks

Cumbria County Council has warned the Department for Trade and Industry that it has "grave concerns" that closing rural post offices in the county will damage rural communities and target the disadvantaged and socially excluded. The comments have been made in response to a DTI consultation exercise on the post office network.

The county council says the DTI's forward strategy "fails to take sufficient account of the contribution that post offices and their operators (sub-postmasters) make to the fabric and functionality of strong rural communities" and goes against the concept of sustainable rural communities set out in the 2000 Rural White Paper. It highlights concerns over the DTI's proposal to reduce the network "particularly among the least used offices and those making the biggest losses" as this will unfairly impact on small, rural offices.

In conjunction with the response to the DTI, the county council is also looking at what practical steps it can take to alleviate the problem. A paper going to Cabinet next week (March 13th) explores the possibility of co-locating post offices in council properties such as schools and libraries.

There are currently 221 post offices in Cumbria. As part of its response to the DTI, Cumbria County Council has conducted a survey of all SubPostmasters in the county to garner information on the services offered by individual branches and their income. A mapping exercise correlating the post office network with areas of high socio-economic need in rural parts of the county has also been conducted.

Most post office users in Cumbria access the post office nearest to where they live (74% in the county's rural areas) and this proximity is more important to older people, people with low incomes and disabled people. These groups use the main services (postal services, collecting pensions and benefits, paying bills and banking) but also rely on the post office to obtain information on community and government issues, access free community services, seek informal advice from the sub-postmaster and for social contact. The proportion of the elderly (aged over 65) and those on low incomes using the post office at least once a week has risen.

The response to the DTI also criticises the proposed access criteria of basing the percentage of households within a physical distance as 'neither equitable nor appropriate' and should be completely re-considered. It also cautions that Cumbria should not lose more than 18% of its post offices - the level of cuts proposed nationally - as the impact on the fabric of local communities would be far greater in the county than elsewhere.

The provision of post offices can be broken down across the Government's rural / urban definition as follows:

Category Population No. PO's PO's / 1000 head popn % Households within 2km

Town & Fringe Less Sparse 76,842 31 0.4 96.9

Town & Fringe Sparse 38,806 12 0.31 96.3

Urban > 10k popn Less Sparse 227,082 52 0.23 99.1

Urban > 10k popn Less Sparse 15,496 3 0.19 98.6

Village, Hamlet & Dispersed Less Sparse 77,214 54 0.70 75.2

Village, Hamlet & Dispersed Sparse 62,442 69 1.11 59.1

Rural Total 255,304 166 0.65 81.5

Urban Total 242,578 55 0.23 99.1

Research undertaken by Postwatch (2002) shows that when post offices in rural communities close, many people suffer a loss of independence and become reliant on others in the community or on public transport. 86% of respondents to the Postwatch Survey felt that losing a post office means 'a lot of people lose their independence' and over a quarter (27%) found it difficult to get to another post office when their local one closed.

Councillor Ian Stewart, Cabinet member responsible for rural proofing, said:

"It's not our job to run post offices, but we are dealing in the real world and the post office network is clearly losing money hand over fist. We need to be realistic and accept that some closures will be inevitable, but we also need to fight for the survival of post offices where they're needed most. In many rural communities, the post office is the hub of the community and the value of the services it provides can't be measured in pure economic terms.

"Our concern is that the DTI is just doing a big numbers exercise; they will work out how much money post offices make and work out the number of people who live near them and at the end of that it will be rural post offices that have to bear an unfair burden of the closures. Residents in rural areas contribute towards the Social Network Payment through their tax bill in the same way as residents in urban areas; why should people in the country be required to travel up to three and six times further to access the same services as their counterparts in urban areas? If there have to be closures then there should be the same number of closures in urban areas as rural ones," said Cllr Stewart.

- In December 2006 the Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling announced that 2,500 post offices will have to close by 2009 because of rising losses and fewer people using the network. New access criteria for post offices stated that 90% of the population should be within a mile of a branch and 95% of the population in rural areas should be within three miles of a branch, doubling to six miles in remote areas.

- The county council has lobbied hard to retain the Social Network Payment, to ensure rural post offices can continue to fulfil their essential role in rural communities. It has previously written to the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott MP in his role as Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on the Post Office Network, arguing that closing rural post offices would have a direct impact on vulnerable groups and those already at risk of rural social exclusion. The payment will be retained at its current rate until 2011 with a commitment from the DTI that there will be an ongoing subsidy after this date.

- Access to post office services for residents of Cumbria is already poorer than the national average on a spatial level:

Post Offices per 10 sq km: Cumbria 0.33; England 0.85; Scotland 0.22, Wales 0.58 % of Rural Households within 2km of a post office: Cumbria 81.5%; England 85.7% % percentage of Cumbria's rural household more than 4km from a post office: Cumbria 3.9%; England 1.6%

- Due to the sparse nature of the county and the number of small settlements, Cumbria has a relatively high number of post offices. When assessed per 10,000 households, Cumbria has 10 existing outlets compared to 5.44 across England, 7.90 in Scotland and 9.92 in Wales. Many of these post offices are in small communities; consequently they serve small customer bases and generate very limited incomes (1 in 4 post offices in Cumbria generate sales of less than £5,000 per annum).

- In Cumbria 80% of post offices are run alongside other businesses such as shops, cafes, garages and pubs. These businesses provide a key service function for their communities and support the visitor economy. In the response to the DTI, the county council has argued that there is a risk that if the post office element of the business is taken away, then the remainder will also be under threat.