17 North East post offices "temporarily closed" for years

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A TOTAL of 17 post offices in the North East have been “temporarily closed” for up to five years, The Journal can reveal.
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A Freedom of Information request has shown that a string of branches have been shut for five years, leaving residents further to travel for services.

The Post Office has blamed a failure to find suitable premises and a shortfall in people offering to man services but the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) last night said that the Post Office’s business model was at fault.

Branches at Matfen Village Hall and Stamfordham Village Hall, which serve the same cluster of Northumberland communities, have been closed on a ‘temporary’ basis since November 2007.

The Post Office has suggested residents, many of whom are elderly and immobile, use other branches – meaning many have to travel more than four miles to use the service.

Those who would have visited the post office at Matfen, would have to travel a further 4.5 miles to the nearest post office Newton mobile service at Main Street.

But, according to the organisation’s website, this service is only available between 4.20pm and 5.25pm.

If they miss this service, they would have to travel 5.3 miles to The Paper Shop at Corbridge.

Similarly, customers who would have ordinarily travelled to the Stamfordham Village Hall branch would find their nearest service at Belsay’s The Arcade, 4.3 miles away.

The news comes after a report revealed 900 post offices across the country have been turned into part-time branches open for just a few hours a week.

The Post Office’s Network Report also revealed that around one in 10 branches operate as a mobile ‘outreach’ service, a situation which the CWU claims will cause problems for pensioners and small businesses.

Simon Gregory, chairman of Whittington Parish Council, said: “This appears to be a further reduction in services for rural communities and we can only hope that public pressure can cause the reopening of services.”

Rural parts of the region are the worst affected by the delay with two temporary closures in place in Northumberland and a further seven in County Durham.

In Tyne and Wear, three services are marked as temporarily closed, while in the Teesside area four branches have yet to reopen. One branch in Redcar and Cleveland is ‘temporarily’ closed.

The Post Office said the temporary closures are for “reasons beyond our control” and efforts are being made to reinstate services”.

The CWU, however, said postal bosses must “wake up” and put in place measures which will make services viable.

Andy Furey, assistant secretary for the union, said: “We are constantly told by the Government that there is no programme of post office closures, yet the North East has got 17 post offices currently closed ‘temporarily’.

“Of these, 10 have been closed for between three and half and a staggering five years. That’s five years without access to post office services yet the official line is that it’s ‘temporary’.

“Our concern is that serious flaws in the business model are putting new postmasters off entering the business.

“When is the Post Office going to wake up and realise that the high number of long term ‘temporary’ closed post offices is a major problem?

“At worst this is closing post offices by stealth, without any planning to sustain access to services, at best it’s a failure in the system to maintain the existing network.”

A Post Office spokesperson said: “Temporary closures occur for many reasons beyond our control, such as the sub-postmaster retiring or the premises being withdrawn for use as a post office branch.

“In the case of these temporary closures despite our best efforts we have struggled to find suitable premises and an agent to reopen these offices.

“However, we have worked closely with local councillors and other interested parties to find suitable locations and someone to take over the branch.”

The Post Office has asked those interested in opening a branch or providing premises to call 0845 601 6260.