Beleaguered sub POs call for more aid

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A LEADING sub postmaster is calling on the Government to "get off the fence" and do more to help struggling post offices.

Post Office Ltd has struck a deal with Royal Mail to continue providing mail services through its outlets for the next 10 years - a move the Government described as "extremely encouraging" for the future of the business.

But Mahesh Patel, National Federation of Sub Postmasters' Reading branch secretary, said the deal alone was not enough to secure the long term future of sub post offices. He said his Whitley Wood branch had lost around half its business in the past decade, with more and more services being taken out of his hands.

Mr Patel said: "We are in dire straits, we need more work from the Government. On the one hand they secure a deal for us to continue to provide services but with the other they are taking away services we can provide. Things have been declining at a rapid rate. The Government blames the EU and says when they put service contracts to tender it needs to be in an open market, but they need to get off the fence and say: 'Here is the work, we do not care a damn about competition'. Other European countries turn a blind eye, so why can't we?"

Harish Patel, who runs a sub branch at his Hildens Drive newsagent in Tilehurst, warned it was small businesses and older people who were often the biggest losers from post office closures.

He said the Government should look at giving post offices services from state-owned banks, and added: "They need to encourage people to come here, we need more Government work."

A few doors away at Greenacre Computer Services, senior network consultant, John Turner, said without such sub branches, the company would have to use a more expensive courier service or travel to the post office in Reading town centre.

He added: "It is better for us to have the ad hoc service."

Couriers often have a minimum amount for deliveries, while getting into the town centre takes time and money. We are lucky to have it here."