scrapping bfpo

[glenfiddich]

just heard today that the government want to scrap european bfpo addresses please could you all sign the petition to try and stop this as our troops need this service and our support thanks

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SaveBFPO/sign" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lounge Lizard]

Why do troops need BFPO addresses in order to receive mail ?
Can't the normal mail network be used, the same as for the rest of us ?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Why do troops need BFPO addresses in order to receive mail ?
Can't the normal mail network be used, the same as for the rest of us ?

Nope - Most BFPO addresses are overseas and would therefore incur greater postage charges. Only a few BFPO addresses are in the UK all in NI as far as I am aware and they use the BFPO system for security procedures - though it may have changed in the 14 years since I left,

[Lounge Lizard]

Why do troops need BFPO addresses in order to receive mail ?
Can't the normal mail network be used, the same as for the rest of us ?

Nope - Most BFPO addresses are overseas and would therefore incur greater postage charges. Only a few BFPO addresses are in the UK all in NI as far as I am aware and they use the BFPO system for security procedures - though it may have changed in the 14 years since I left,

So BFPO addresses are a means of post being subsidised so that only the inland rather than dearer international rate is paid ?
Srapping BFPO addresses would therefore be a cost cutting measure, not one though that would save enough money to sort out the Royal mail pension deficit .

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Why do troops need BFPO addresses in order to receive mail ?
Can't the normal mail network be used, the same as for the rest of us ?

Nope - Most BFPO addresses are overseas and would therefore incur greater postage charges. Only a few BFPO addresses are in the UK all in NI as far as I am aware and they use the BFPO system for security procedures - though it may have changed in the 14 years since I left,

So BFPO addresses are a means of post being subsidised so that only the inland rather than dearer international rate is paid ?
Srapping BFPO addresses would therefore be a cost cutting measure, not one though that would save enough money to sort out the Royal mail pension deficit .

Nope there is a place in mount pleasant where all BFPO addressed items are sent - they then send onto the Forces Network and its shipped out with all the other stuff that oversea bases need. Like ammo, weapons, vehicles, personal items, etc. Mail is low priority and when you are overseas it cannot always be depended on.

If they scrap the BFPO system then they will have to pay the local postal network to deliver it - costing more in the long run as all Government employees based overseas get an allowance based on how much more it costs to live in that location. If it costs more to send stuff home or them to send it to you the allowance will go up to reflect this.

[Lounge Lizard]

Well is scrapping BFPO addresses isn't a cost cutting measure why are they doing it ?

[DGP1]

Well is scrapping BFPO addresses isn't a cost cutting measure why are they doing it ?

Stupidity or more likely, there's someone out there that can make money out of it.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Ben Wallace (Shadow Minister, Scotland; Lancaster & Wyre, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent consideration he has given to future staffing levels in the British Forces Post Office; and if he will make a statement.

* Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 1 September 2009, c1798W)


Bill Rammell (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Harlow, Labour)

The staffing levels of the British Forces Post Office are determined by the requirement to ensure that our personnel have access to appropriate postal facilities. Support to operations, exercises and to HM Ships can be provided only by British Forces Post Office staff. However, we have identified that savings may be realised if personnel based in countries with a well developed postal infrastructure utilise the indigenous postal service rather than relying on British Forces Post Office staff. To that end the Forces Post Offices servicing the UK elements of NATO HQs in SHAPE, Brussels, Brunssum, Stavanger, Karup, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Valencia and Norfolk Virginia are due to close.

-----------------------------------------------------Background ------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Ainsworth (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

Mail posted from anywhere within the United Kingdom typically takes three to seven days to reach Iraq and Afghanistan. All British Forces Post Office addressed mail is delivered several times daily to the British Forces Post Office depot at Northolt for sorting and onward transmission to its final destination. All mail for Iraq and Afghanistan is bagged, loaded daily onto road transport and driven to Royal Air Force Brize Norton or Royal Air Force Lyneham for loading on to military or charter flights to the operational theatres.

The British Forces Post Offices in the theatres seek to clear the mail daily. This is usually achieved in Iraq due to the collocation of the majority of British forces in the Basra base. However, in Afghanistan the onward transmission of mail can be delayed because mail for units deployed to forward positions has to be transported by helicopter for the final leg of delivery. Although all steps are taken to ensure timely delivery, mail transported by helicopter comes behind ammunition, medical supplies and food in order of priority.

[Lounge Lizard]

The staffing levels of the British Forces Post Office are determined by the requirement to ensure that our personnel have access to appropriate postal facilities. Support to operations, exercises and to HM Ships can be provided only by British Forces Post Office staff. However, we have identified that savings may be realised if personnel based in countries with a well developed postal infrastructure utilise the indigenous postal service rather than relying on British Forces Post Office staff. To that end the Forces Post Offices servicing the UK elements of NATO HQs in SHAPE, Brussels, Brunssum, Stavanger, Karup, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Valencia and Norfolk Virginia are due to close.
==
So as mail to mostly European destinations gets there quick enough in the normal postal system then there's no need for service personnel to be deployed on such postal duties and thus the taxes we pay can be better used elsewhere.

[castle]

Signed..... another cost cutting exercise.... shame on them.... SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

[axeman]

and when it arrives at it's destination through 'normal' chanels the indiginous staff if they are inclined can slip a little something into the package for a suprise gift to the recipient...........more body bags ?

[johnnyp]

Done Just over 18,000 on there now.

[Lounge Lizard]

and when it arrives at it's destination through 'normal' chanels the indiginous staff if they are inclined can slip a little something into the package for a suprise gift to the recipient...........more body bags ?

And do you really think there's much danger of that in Belgium, Italy, Portugal or the USA ?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

and when it arrives at it's destination through 'normal' chanels the indiginous staff if they are inclined can slip a little something into the package for a suprise gift to the recipient...........more body bags ?

And do you really think there's much danger of that in Belgium, Italy, Portugal or the USA ?

Why not, the chance is small I grant you, but it is a possibility. For instance the IRA (and some of its many off shoots) were known to both have used postal bombs against servicemen and government employees. They also used bombs hidden in the NAAFI and Rhiendaheln, and ambushed a Warrant office in either Holland or Belgium heading home to the UK on leave. Thats why they scrapped the BF number plates.

Is it much of a stretch for a local postal organisation to be infiltrated by a "sleeper" and do exactly what you dismiss so casually. The Americans thought no terrorists would hijack a plane and crash it into a building and yet 8 years before 9/11 - in 1993 Algerian terrorists planned to do exactly that to the Eifel Tower with the hijacking of Air France flight 8969 with over 200 passengers on board on Christmas Eve 1994 - the subject of The Age of Terror programme, The Paris Plot.

In Ireland I once heard a statement that "If you can think of a way to attack the forces using terrorist methods, then somewhere in the world someone is planning to do exactly that". "Plan for the Worst, don't hope for the best"

------------------------- Background
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ffice.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 2nd Bomb Blasts sorting office

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=74208" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (IRA LETTER BOMB IN LONDON) 1970

I should also report to the House that two postal bombs were delivered in London yesterday. The first was received by British Home Stores in Marylebone Road. A member of the staff was suspicious, and called the police, who dealt with the bomb successfully. The second was received by the Chief of Staff, London District, at his home. It exploded and injured his hand. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/comm ... nts-london" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IRA attacks in Europe http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 287075.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
1978 - Bomb defused at Rheindahlen.

1979 - Four hurt after a bomb was planted under an army bandstand in Brussels.

1980 - British soldier out jogging at Osnabruck army base is shot and injured.

1987 - The IRA said it carried out the bombing at the Rheindahlen army base.

1988: Three RAF men died in attacks in Roermond and Nieuw Bergen, Netherlands.
Nine men hurt in bombing at Glamorgan Barracks, Duisberg, Germany.
Three Royal Engineers injured in blast in Dusseldorf, Germany.
British soldier killed by gunmen in Ostend, Belgium.

1989: 150kg Semtex device found next to dormitory block at Quebec barracks.
Corporal Steven Smith killed by car bomb in Hanover.
Serviceman and his six-month-old baby shot dead at filling station in Wildenrath, Germany, near Dutch border.

1990: Two Australian tourists were mistakenly gunned down in Roermond, in the Netherlands.

1996 - Mortar attack on Osnabruck army base, the second IRA bombing at the barracks, which is home to Britain's Desert Rats.

[NWpostie]

Pointless cost cutting exercise, this will only kill morale, something which you can't put a price on !, I see many parcels sent out with much needed items, like baby wipes, soaps, chocolates, DVDs and memory cards, others items from Home, pictures drawn by their kids, all this really is a lifeline.

I am ashamed of this Govt, in fact all GB Govt have always used the Army to absorb cuts, take the Falklands before it kicked off some of the Aircraft carriers were about to be scrapped before being hastily brought back to service, If the Argies only had to wait 6 months the Island would be theirs and there would have been nothing we could have done about it.

Forget Insurgencies, Forget IEDs, Forget Iran, our biggest enemy is our OWN Petty minded Govt.