Joan McAlpine: 'Modernisation' of the Post Office is a byword for the heart and soul being ripped out of small communities

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JOAN believes that under the radar cuts to Post Offices harm local communities and can't be simply dressed up as a modernising period of transformation.

SOME words should carry a health warning.

Modernisation is one. At first glance it means shiny, new and clean. But modern can also be ­minimalist – stripped down, de-humanised and cut price.

The modernisation of our Post Offices definitely falls into the latter category. Under the “modernising” network transformation programme”, thousands of Post Offices which were once the heart of communities are being stripped down, with long-serving post masters thrown on the scrapheap.

This is taking place under the radar – because the offices are being moved into ­supermarkets and convenience stores rather than closed completely.

This in itself makes the services insecure – what happens if the chain runs into ­difficulty? Commercial businesses, including household names, can close in the blink of an eye. This plan means that Post Offices survive only if the market decides.

The human service they once provided is also lost and our small towns and villages suffer.

This week I attended a standing room-only meeting where 80-odd villagers in Eastriggs, Dumfriesshire, quizzed Post Office officials on the proposal to get rid of their much- loved post master.

A counter at the Spar was offered, with fewer services but longer hours. There would be no privacy but it was suggested customers could lower their voices. Seriously.

It’s supposed to be a consultation. But the Post Office representatives did not sound like they were in listening mode and had not visited either the Post Office or its proposed replacement. They dismissed issues raised by the villagers as irrelevant, such as the ability to bank cheques or use Parcel Force.

At the heart of it all is a quite incredible family. The post master Kevin and his wife Angela go out of their way to help villagers. Angela volunteers to visit housebound older people, dropping off pensions and collecting post.

Needless to say, at Christmas their two children are overwhelmed with presents from grateful locals (gifts to the post master are not allowed).

The Post Office plan could mean they are forced out of their home and the area.

Angela and Kevin provide the kind of service that many city folk could be forgiven for thinking had died in the 1950s.

They bought the property because it came with a Post Office franchise, which pays a basic wage.

Now the contract is being redrawn for Kevin and thousands like him. The basic payment to post masters, around £10,000, is withdrawn and they are paid on a “transactions only” basis. As someone at the meeting told the Post Office: “You care about profit, we care about our community.”

This may be a sadly typical ­consequence of the privatisation of state institutions. Except the Post Office is not privatised. It is wholly owned by the UK Government. Ministers have the power to stop this, but of course they have no interest in doing any such thing.

In fact there doesn’t seem to be a minister currently responsible for postal services – David Cameron hasn’t got round to appointing one.

I am sending my objections to the business minister instead.

But it’s worse than mere inaction or indifference. The Conservative Government is behind this programme of “modernisation” – it is they who have withdrawn the modest funds to support post masters with an allowance.

Yet across the UK, ­Conservative MPs are wringing their hands and offering to support villagers whose communities are having their centre of gravity ripped out.

They hope nobody notices that this is actually their Government playing the last post.