We want POs to become people's banks

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Post Offices in Norfolk would be thrown a vital lifeline if proposals for them to host a national "people's bank" become a reality, it was claimed today.

According to national reports, business secretary Peter Mandelson is considering the creation of the groundbreaking bank which would use the UK network of 12,000 post offices and see them offering a full range of financial service.

At the moment post offices can be used for the Post Office Card Account, through which benefits and pensions are distributed, and a link up with the Bank of Ireland means it can offer credit cards, mortgages and personal loans.

But a fully-fledged bank, would, say supporters of the idea, be an enormous boost for the post offices which were spared last summer's cull.

Proposals submitted to the government's select committee last week by business groups, MPs and unions, called for the state-owned "people's bank" to also offer debit-card facilities, current accounts, savings plans, loans, business services and financial advice.

That idea was today welcomed with open arms by Malcolm Wright, sub-postmaster of the Vauxhall Street post office in Norwich, whose branch was earmarked for closure last year but survived after a campaign by the Evening News.

Mr Wright said: "We at the Federation of Sub-Postmasters have been after this for years. It is exactly what we need.

"At the moment we have the Post Office Card Account, but that is strictly for government services such as money or benefits. We need that to continue and I see no reason why you couldn't combine both and open it up to everybody."

Mr Wright said similar schemes in France and Italy had proved enormously successful - and brought people back to post offices. He said: "People trust the Post Office. It is still one of the most trusted names on the High Street.

"So many people would switch to the Post Office account and it would bring back trust in the banking industry."

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), which is opposed to part-privatisation of the Royal Mail - something which the government has been considering - said: "The people's bank is an idea whose time has come."

Last year the Evening News led a campaign to prevent the closure of vital post offices in Norfolk. The effects of that cull are being felt across the county with 58 branches in Norfolk and West Suffolk selected for closure. Among those in Norwich which were axed were those in North Earlham, Trowse, Cringleford, Great Plumstead and the branch in the shop at Rosary Road in Thorpe St Andrew.

More than 15,000 signed our petition calling for Post Office bosses to think again. The branch at Vauxhall Street was saved along with branches at Beeston near Dereham and New Buckenham near Attleborough, while the post office in New Costessey, which was earmarked for closure, after those three branches were saved, was also granted a reprieve.

Rupert Read, Green Party city councillor for Wensum ward and the party's lead candidate for the Eastern region in this year's European elections, said: "We are in favour of banks being nationalised and returned to the people and no longer being private, commercial operators in which capacity they fail dismally.

"It is a good thing that people like Mandelson are starting to come around to the idea."

The Green Party is planning to put forward a motion at the next full council meeting at Norwich City Council calling for the authority to oppose the part privatisation of the Post Office's parent company Royal Mail.

More than a hundred Labour MPs have signed an early day motion in the House of Commons calling for the government to drop those plans to sell off part of Royal Mail to a foreign operator.

Among those was Norwich North Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson, who said he believed the noise they had made had got through to Lord Mandelson.

He said: "It would save post offices, will give them extra finances and give people a relationship with their bank which would be much more local and personal."

Ü Do you think a "people's bank" based in post offices is a good idea? Write to Evening News Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE or email eveningnewsletters@archant.co.uk