UK Post Offices - An Inconvenient Truth

[Night Tonic]

http://www.hellmail.co.uk/postalnews/te ... 5&zoneid=3

26 April 2008 by Gary Shaw - © Hellmail.co.uk

So the May elections are rapidly approaching, all opposition parties have on their agenda "Save our Post Offices" the only party not taking this vote winning stance is the Government founded by the working man, for the working man.

Lets look at the facts behind why labour is so adamant on reducing the network. Its costs the government (or should we say the taxpayers) £180 million a year to keep the network afloat. Why should the Post Office be such a burden on the taxpayers?

Firstly we need to bring the £180 million into perspective, in the same week they announced this, it was announced they were spending £280 million into developing "Baby Asbos" for under 10's. In this current climate of anti social behaviour, a valid investment of money agreed, but why are Post Offices such a "crime" to society?

If I went to the table and said to the government "I have this idea, it's a fantastic one, I can reduce social isolation to 25% of the population, I can reduce car journeys in the UK by 1% all its going to cost you is £180 million a year" I'm sure the response would be "it can't be done for that money" In essence that is waht the Post Office Network does, its just being marketed wrong.

Lets take one area Nottingham they estimate that congestion costs their economy £160 million a year, that's just one area, if your interested in the UK as a whole it's a staggering £8.6 billion. Now I'm not saying for one instant that keeping the Post Office's open we are going to reduce that figure dramatically, but it can contribute towards a reduction.

As I have called this article "An Inconvenient Truth" I think its time for some actual figures, Whilst the information so far is pure "speculation" and no one knows the actual figures. I will now give you my actual figures of the cost of our Post Office to the economy, these are figures, lets forget (even though vital) the social aspect, the care for the elderly, the reduction in car journeys etc.

As a cost to the taxpayer in terms of subsidies our office is £5,000 a year (shock, gasp horror) lets take a third of that away which we pay back in tax and national insurance we are looking at £3,500. (The government are great at quoting this £180 million figure but approximately £54 million they get back anyway)

Ok now lets look at our business unit as a whole, take out tax, national insurance, VAT paid on the shop purchases and tax paid on profit. For their £3,500 investment we pay back a staggering £45,000 a year, take this office away and the government save £3,500 but lose £41,500. Clever isn't it?

But they do not want you to see these figures, they want to see the "top line" not the bottom.

We are one of the saved Post Offices, so you may be wondering why I'm even writing this article. The reason for this is, no matter what government is in power, unless they get to grips with understanding the business and its net contribution both financial and social, it will continue to decline whoever is at the helm. In 1984 there were 22,000 offices in the network, today the figure is to stand at 12,500.

Another interesting fact that people do not seem to realise is did you know that according to a recent survey by the National Association of Estate agents by having a local shop/post office near to your home actually adds 5% to its value. You may want to bear this in mind next time you are buying stamps from a supermarket.

The whole Post Office closure programme cannot be blamed on Royal Mail, in a way I kind of feel sorry for Adam Crozier, who has been given the dirty job of implimenting the programme (OK he gets paid enough to do it) but the similarites of whats going on in the UK Postal Network and what happened to the UK rail network in the late 60's I think we may have another "Dr Beeching" on our hands, a preson appointed by the government to do their dirty work only to have his name engraved into the bowels of history. Whilst the true instigators go unnoticed.

[Big Daz]

What's a preson?

[Night Tonic]

No idea - lol. Might have been better if he'd just put a dotted line so we could substitute our own descripton for Crozier.

[axeman]

Don't you worship the very ground on which he walks then n.t or is my perception of you a little biased

[Night Tonic]

No - you're just blinkered and you're also running out of constructive comment.

[DGP1]

No - you're just blinkered and you're also running out of constructive comment.

Stop being so defensive, just take it that your views and someone elses are the same and that someone will point it out.

[Night Tonic]

And what has any of this blarny to do with post offices???