Report reveals the real cost of post office closures

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Ten years ago there were almost 20,000 post offices.

Today there are 11,700. Virtually every closure was fought by local people who knew their community would suffer-as a result - but the bosses of Post Office Limited (part of Royal Mail) and the Government, which ultimately controls it, pushed on with their closure programme regardless.

Financial Mail visited scores of communities as we campaigned against the latest round of closures, which saw 2,500 branches axed during 2008 and 2009. Without exception, local people have told reporters about the depressing consequences.

Dr David Cooper's report into post office closures found customers were being driven away from remaining branches

But there has never been an in-depth, independent study of those consequences - until now, with the publication by Dr David Cooper, an academic at the University of Chichester in West Sussex, of his 100-page analysis for the county council on the effects of closures in six different locations.


And his findings, made after surveys of thousands of businesses and residents, should shock Post Office management and Ministers.

Not only does Cooper spell out the costs associated with closures more explicitly than in previous research, but he shows that the closures and the resulting poorer service at remaining branches are driving more customers away.

'There is a cost to businesses in terms of having to travel farther and queue longer, which is one thing,' he says. 'But the biggest cost is to businesses adjacent to post offices. When they close, footfall plunges.'

Carrington post office in the north of Nottingham is an example of where forced closure brings heartache. Despite fierce protest by locals such as Colin and Beki Barratt, above, the branch shut in March 2008. Since then a local mobilephone shop has gone and a clothing store is closing down. Resident Winifred Archer, 88, suffers from arthritis and uses a mobility scooter. 'The closure has been devastating,' she says. 'I wish the bosses who axed our branch could share the suffering of isolation felt by the disabled and elderly. This was a vibrant area but now it is dying - how can you put a price on that?' An Age Concern survey found that 87 per cent of respondents visited their local branch at least once a week.

Spending in businesses near to post offices falls an average 28 per cent when the branch shuts, Cooper found. For example, a chip shop reported daily takings down £200.

Small businesses have to travel farther to use another post office and this vastly increases queues. 'Increased queuing affects three-quarters of those who have been forced to change branch, and most of those severely,' says Cooper.

Especially disturbing were his findings about closures in towns and suburbs. 'People often think about countryside closures being the most devastating, but this is also very much an urban issue,' says Cooper.

One explanation is that customers in towns are proportionately more likely to be vulnerable members of society through disability, age, or an inability to afford private transport or to pay someone to help them.

Closing urban branches can crystallise poverty and undermine council efforts to regenerate areas, Cooper believes. Most alarming of all for Post Office bosses are signs that when branches close, some people stop using the network altogether.

Cooper says that while most customers reluctantly switch to another branch, about 11 per cent stop going to post offices altog e t h e r .

Almost two thirds of respondents indicated that the post office network overall had lost revenue from them as a result of the closure of their nearest branch.

Cooper believes the whole network will crumble unless managementliaises with local authorities and other public bodies to deliver new services.

But he damns the service given, saying: 'It's not the postmaster behind the counter - everyone knows he is working hard and doing his best. But it's the fact that there aren't enough staff or counters that is making people angry and making them turn away.'

The post office that survived

The pretty Wiltshire village of Sherston has a charming stonebuilt post office that caters for 1,500 locals. This branch, which doubles as the village's general store, has not only escaped the axe, but is thriving.

Sub-postmaster Paul Mather, 50, and his wife Gail, 51, have created a winner that has picked up several awards.

Using £20,000 of his own cash, Paul has installed an extra counter. 'We want people to be served and not kept in a queue,' he says.

'The extra counter is more private and favoured by businesses and some people picking up benefits. The other is a more open, friendly area where customers can chat.' Villager Jane Skoulding, 40, was posting letters with son Ben, 2.

She also has another son, Dominic, 5. 'We could not survive without this branch and so everyone supports it,' she says. 'The post office is too small to stock everything but if you need something they get it in the next day, such as children's medicine.'

Stable groom and mother-ofthree Anna Jarvis, 43, believes that the secret of success is not just attention to service but also long hours.

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