Council steps up campaign for rural post offices

South Norfolk councillors have stepped up their campaign to save town and village post offices from closure.

And they have called on the South Norfolk community to join them by using their local post office to keep it busy, and help keep it open.

Councillor Michael Windridge, Cabinet Member for Tourism, Heritage, Enterprise and Culture joined postmasters and mistresses from 14 of the South Norfolk post offices for their second campaign meeting on Friday 26 October.

As concern continues to grow over Post Office Ltd’s plans, the Council has been collecting information from post offices throughout South Norfolk about their range of services and number of customers.

This will help gauge the impact that widespread closures would have on the district’s rural villages and parishes. The information is being used to help strengthen the case for saving post offices from the axe.

Councillor Windridge said:

“One of the issues which the sub-postmasters and mistresses raised was wanting to be allowed to operate on a commercially level playing field.

"It would certainly help if all village post offices could offer car tax, foreign currency, passport applications and debit card transactions as a matter of course.

“At the suggestion of the postmasters and mistresses, I shall be writing to each of the 55,000 households in South Norfolk warning them of Post Office Ltd’s intended closure programme for the rural network and urging residents to make a special effort to support their local post office if they are fortunate to have one.

“It was only recently that I realised I could get my car taxed at my local Hempnall post office. I could have done it online as before but I deliberately gave my local post office the business instead. Whilst there I was also delighted to be able to pick up some euros for a semi-final rugby trip to Paris!

"It is our responsiblity to care about the sustainability of our smaller communities and the more vulnerable sections of society, such as the elderly, the disabled and those without their own transport.

"The local post office is not only their main point of daily social contact, it provides lots of useful services, and in many cases, delivering those daily essentials to people who are housebound.

“We want to be able to show Post Office Ltd that closures may have a devastating effect on residents and communities in rural areas and to consider most carefully any proposals they make.

"Post Office Ltd will announce their detailed plans for Norfolk in March. They will allow only six weeks for consultation, so we want to ensure that the intended closures are not taken on commercial grounds alone.”

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