Post Office closure consultation was a 'sham'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/pers ... -sham.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The consultation that led to the controversial closure of thousands of Post Office branches has been described as a “sham”.

Almost three million people tried to air their views about the closures, but the Post Office “failed” to effectively engage consumers in the consultation, according to a report by campaign group Consumer Focus. It left one in 13 directly contributing to the formal decision-making process.

The report also suggested the Post Office “missed opportunities” to obtain valuable knowledge of how cutbacks would affect communities.

The closure of 2,500 post offices in just 18 months caused widespread anger among hundreds of thousands of people.

Consumers thought the Post Office communicated information about the closure programme consultation poorly, rating its communications 4.2 out of 10 on average, according to the report.

And less than 20 per cent of consumers were aware that the closure proposals were subject to a consultation.

The poor communications and the short six-week consultation period made it difficult for consumers to engage effectively, it said.

Consumer Focus said there are lessons for other providers of essential but vulnerable public services, such as community transport and libraries.

Andy Burrows, public services expert for Consumer Focus, said: “During these challenging financial times, cutbacks in key local services seem inevitable. Our research on the Post Office closure programme warns that, unless consumers are actively engaged around decisions on essential services, consultations will be more likely to fail.

“Effectively engaging with, and listening to, consumers, is essential to ensure that changes take place that deliver services that meet the needs of local communities.”

Lord Young, the postal affairs minister, said: “The Post Office closures which took place were difficult but necessary to ensure the viability of the rest of the network and stop it losing half a million pounds a day. Post Office Limited is now on a more sound financial footing and the Government has made it clear that it will not support another round of closures.

“Consultations took place across the country with 2.7m people making their views known. This lead to 353 closure proposals being withdrawn.

“It is important to remember that with over 11,500 branches nationwide, the Post Office remains the largest retail and financial services chain in the UK. Its network is larger than all of the banks in the UK combined and bigger than all the main supermarket chains combined.”

[Captain Scarlet]

How does this not surprise me, look at what Crozier done at the FA, cut staff and made a lot of enemies and then f$*"ed off

It was always going to be the case with PO closures, let the public know it,s happening but not too much and make the timescale impossible then you can bash on and say much later and too late that you kept your side of the bargain but no-one was really bothered about closures and you get away with it.

Crozier will do the same at ITV and shoot when the going gets tough, that,s all he knows, which isn,t very much

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This lead to 353 closure proposals being withdrawn.

- Disingenuous I think - he forgot to mention that some of those that were saved caused another in the same area to close in replacement. Happened to at least 2 that I remember and probably more.

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... =19&t=8536" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ziko]

What? they didnt listen to what their customers wanted... funny that. So they imposed changes without consultation? .... therefore Modernisation = nil communication