Councils' plan could help keep post offices open

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COUNCIL services could be offered at post offices, as part of a venture to save branches from closure.

Oxford city and Oxfordshire county councils are exploring the possibility of a partnership which would see services, such as the payment of rents and council tax and the sale of parking permits, being offered at post office counters.

A similar partnership is being piloted in Sheffield.

City and county councillor Jean Fooks has now pressed for a scheme to be explored in Oxford to help reinstate post offices lost in recent years – including branches in her Summertown ward.

The latest closure in Oxford was of the Underhill Circus branch in Barton, which shut in February.

Across the South East, 356 post office branches have closed in the past five years. There are 1,410 remaining.

Mrs Fooks said the partnership could help everyone involved. She added: “If the councils provide more business through the Post Office that would make them more viable, and save the council money.

“You could pay rent and council tax there, which is an obvious start, and then move on to anything else where the council collects or deals with money.

“Anything that stops post offices going has to be good. We have lost at least three in Summertown and it is now top of everyone’s list in terms of what they want to see in the area.”

Both the city and county councils have passed motions to explore the idea.

Mrs Fooks added: “Nothing is stopping us from doing this. People just have to realise it is really possible.”

Sheffield City Council and the Post Office launched their 12 month pilot scheme in November.

The scheme sees residents paying council tax and rent at any of the city’s 78 post offices rather than being limited to one payment point in the city centre.

Plans are in place to extend the scheme to include parking permits and blue badges for disabled people. Post Office Ltd spokesman Richard Hall said: “We are always willing to discuss initiatives that help us develop new business.”

He said there was no update on plans to reopen a branch in Barton following the closure of the Underhill Circus branch, but he said the Post Office hoped to restore a service in the future.

Councillors and community leaders on the estate fear the lack of a post office will hit elderly and vulnerable people who may find it hard to travel to branches in Risinghurst and Headington.