EVERY DAY SEES ONE MORE POST OFFICE FORCED TO SHUT

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ONE post office is closing every day – despite official promises to keep the ailing network running.

Up to 4,500 branches could be at risk, equivalent to more than a third of the remaining network.

The alarming figures, submitted to a Parliamentary inquiry, suggest the recent closure of 2,500 “uneconomic” rural post office branches has failed to stop the rot.

George Thompson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, told MPs that if nothing was done the network would shrink from the existing 12,000 branches to just 7,500 – the minimum needed to meet the Government’s “access criteria” which govern how far people should be expected to travel to use a post office.

Mr Thompson told the Commons business and enterprise committee: “On the evidence I have it looks like one post office a day is closing as we speak, which is very worrying.

“The reality is that postmasters’ salaries have been growing slowly but the cost of running a post office has been going up quite dramatically, which means that many of them physically cannot afford to make ends meet.

They want to serve the public, they want to serve the community, but they physically can’t remain in that post office providing that service to the public.”

Peter Luff, Tory chairman of the Commons business and enterprise committee, said the figures showed the Post Office still faced a “worrying situation”.

Mr Thompson warned that Government cutbacks could accelerate the closures. Funding for the Post Office Card Account, which allows people to draw their pensions at post offices, has been slashed this year from £200million a year to £120million.

Mr Thompson said there were “grave concerns” about the Government’s plan to part-privatise Royal Mail, which could see the £356million paid to the Post Office for handling mail cut dramatically. He said there would be “massive pressure” from the new owners to reduce costs, which would leave sub-postmasters struggling to survive on even less.

There are also concerns that the sell-off could see the closure of dozens of the 900 small sorting offices which help give many post offices additional income.

Mr Thompson said the financial squeeze meant only 4,000 of the remaining 12,000 branches still make a profit.

Ministers have said they would like to see the network stay at its current size but rules that say people should not have to travel more than six miles to a post office require only 7,500 branches.

The network has suffered massive cutbacks since 1997 when there were 19,000 branches.

Almost 5,000 post offices were closed in two Government-funded programmes that were supposed to shore up the remaining network.

Many closures are blamed on the decision to abandon old-style pension and benefit books that used to bring sub-postmasters a steady income.