How post office closures affected York communities

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It is now nearly three years since dozens of post offices in York and North Yorkshire closed in a major shake up of Post Office Ltd. MEGI RYCHLIKOVA has been finding out what happened next – and what the future could hold for the survivors.

CAMPAIGNERS against the post office closures warned of the heart being ripped out of their communities, of residents losing vital services and amenities, of convenience stores having to close and elderly people facing long journeys to post a letter.

It was a precursor of the protests against the far greater impact of the Government spending cuts yet to come – and in some cases the campaigners’ predictions seem to have been proved right.

But there is mixed hope and gloom from the story of the post offices and their services since the wave of closures nearly three years ago.

Then York lost its post offices at Clifton Green, Haxby Road and Main Street in Fulford. The closures forced postmasters and those interested in preserving local postal services to think imaginatively.

Crichton Avenue Post Office became the nearest post office for customers of Clifton Green and Haxby Road, but it has not found life easier since February 2008. On the contrary, business and therefore income is down. Post Office Ltd pays sub post offices for every transaction they carry out, every stamp sale, every parcel posted, every pension paid out. But some of the services they relied on to bring in business have moved online, such as renewing TV licences. Pensions and other social security benefits are often paid direct into people’s bank accounts, rather than over the counter.

So sub-postmaster Alistair Murray looked for other ways of bringing in income and rented out part of the premises in Crichton Avenue to an electronic business called Intake Computer Solutions. Run by Jason Robinson, it supplies and repairs computers.

“I’m very pleased we made that decision,” said Mr Murray.

“The number of people coming through the door are dwindling and because of the economic climate the Post Office has reduced the money that we get per transaction. Of course it has an impact.” He is excited about Government proposals to make post offices mutual societies to help them survive and provide their traditional services.

“It is an amazing thing to do,” he said. “You are a part of the community and you do feel a responsibility to the local people. It is really the heart of the community.”

The survival of a post office can be vital for local businesses, he said. If a post office is open in a parade of shops, then customers popping in for a stamp or pay their utility bill or other postal service, tend to use the shops alongside the post office, rather than go into the city centre.


Store manager delivers service to pensioners

In Haxby Road parade of shops, customers still turn up with a parcel to what was their sub post office and get it posted.

The Londis convenience store that shared a building with the post office is part of a chain of four that includes two surviving post offices at Eastholme Drive, Haxby, and Broadway, Fulford. So manager Ghulam Rabbani, former Haxby Road sub-postmaster, delivers the parcel to another post office in the chain.

Mr Rabbani said: “Every third or fourth customer says ‘Where is the post office?’.

“It shut down three years ago, but they leave a parcel or buy stamps. I help as much as I can. Elderly people can’t go to Crichton Avenue. They have to go uphill and downhill or get a taxi, which costs more. We still sell stamps. If anything has to go urgently, I send someone with it – we have two post offices.”

He also had PayPoint installed, which enables customers to pay their utility bills and council bills such as rent and rates. But it doesn’t provide pensions, so elderly people have had to find other ways of accessing their pensions, such as through their banks.

His family also ran a convenience store at Main Street sub-post office in Fulford. When that closed in 2008, the shop closed as well because it was too small to run without the post office income. The family looked around for another way of keeping their chain’s presence in the suburb – and now run a combined convenience store and post office in larger premises in Broadway, Fulford.

Online transactions are not all bad news for post offices. Nigel Hamilton-Evans, York branch secretary of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, said eBay was a big boost to sub post offices because people selling items on the internet auction site have to post them – and therefore carry out a transaction at a sub post office.

Sub-postmasters didn’t want to depend on Government subsidies.

“We are not asking for a hand-out. Let us do the work,” he said. “We have the facilities and we have the staff. We could carry out essential Government services.”

The federation has been in talks with different Governments for years, but the mood changed in May.

“We have had lots of promises from Government without anything finalised or action being taken,” he said. “Now we are getting promises back that things are happening. We are extremely positive about what the new coalition Government is doing.”

The federation is watching carefully the progress of the Postal Services Bill. In addition to privatising Royal Mail or delivery service, it opens the possibility of post offices becoming mutual societies in the future. As the Government looks to radically cut the amount it spends on public services, using the surviving post office network, whether state-owned or as mutual societies, could be one way for it to save money – and ensure communities across the country keep their post offices.