Plea over Post Office services

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POST office workers in the region have urged the Government to give branches the services to safeguard their future after it was revealed a state-backed bank plan would be scrapped.

The Government said last night that a plan for a Post Office Bank would be too expensive and time consuming.

But plans are in place to privatise parts of the Royal Mail and public money would be invested in refurbishing branches, extending opening hours and cutting queues.

Customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest will also be able to access their current and business accounts through the Post Office.

A spokesman for the Business Department said: “Setting up and capitalising a new bank would be time-consuming and extremely expensive.

“At a time when the public finances are under huge strain, funding is better spent modernising and maintaining the network.”

Sue Edgar, secretary of the Durham Tees Valley branch of the National Federation of Sub Postmasters (NFSP), welcomed the agreement with RBS and NatWest but said more services were needed to ensure that smaller branches remained open.

Mrs Edgar, who runs the Grove Hill post office in Middlesbrough, said: “We wanted Post Bank, everyone was in support of it but that is not going to happen now.

“We have to get over that and now look to see if the Government can live up to their promise to give us services, because they have broken promises in the past.

“We need footfall through the post offices and we need to be paid for that footfall. We can’t just be a place which hands out leaflets.

“The potential is there but if we don’t get these services then we will see so many small post offices disappear.”

Colleen Ingham, sub-postmistress at Cockfield village post office, in County Durham, said: “We are in a remote area here and for a mother and her child to go in to Bishop Auckland to the nearest bank it would cost £7 on the bus.

“That means every time that mother wants to pay in a cheque it costs that much – which is a lot, especially if you are on benefits.

“A Post Office Bank could have let people in remote areas do all their banking locally.”