Post Offices: death of a national institution?

The government has ordered the closure of 2,500 Post Offices across Britain. The local Post Office is, to many, a symbol of the British pastoral idyll and the sense of community spirit. The iconic red post box has become as totemic as the Union Jack. Do the closures reflect a decline in British society as a whole?

What do you think should be done to get Post Office sorted? Where do you think the blame for its infrastructural inadequacies lies? Could the rise in new communication technology be partially responsible? Can privatisation solve the problem?

Share your views.

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dunno if anyone has said it yet but the problem as I see it is one of farming off services to other outlets.  Sure the number of people using the post office will fall if you can get most of what they offer elswhere.  The least worst option in my mind is mult -use, such as in other shops and services.  our local post office wasaved by installing it in the local supermarket.

As much I don't want to see the end of our Post Office (it is and always will be part of our heritage). The organisation is now paying the price for years of complacency and neglect. This has resulted in the Post Office becoming uncompetative. It is going to take a lot of time and money for it to recoup some of the ground it has lost to it's competitors. Unfortunately, because of their short sightedness, I can not see the share holders agreeing to greater investment  from the profits as this would mean a lower return for them.

So it is Jo public that will have to foot the bill and pay the consequences of keeping the Post Office alive, while the shareholders get richer.

The problem is,  our government are just doing what their masters in the EU commission tell them. Close all post offices,because the EU is jealous and do not want it.

Firstly why do you think that the closure of Post offices in UK is to do with European Parliament?

I simply hold the view that the present and previous government wish to privatise everything in this country, Post Office / Royal Mail included. To justify the demise of  the Post office, the government wish to show it is a loss maker. How do you do that, you remove many of its services so that very little work needs to be done by Post Office.

I don't see other nations in Europe seeking to be rid of their post offices.  I think that even if the government wishes to see post office destroyed, why are the people of the country here not ready to be vocal and active about forcing the government to change its direction on the issue of post office.  If this was in FRANCE, unions from all sectors would be supporting the post office staff in many ways forcing the nation to a stand still. In UK, sectors don't support each other. The voters don't complain nor do they lobby / support campaigns. That is why MPs don't bother to react - people can be unhappy with government but really, all they will do is not bother to vote at next election....which won't make a difference to many MPs support. However if voters threatened to vote but for another party, you would see MPs feel threatened and perhaps be more empathetic and open to voters concerns like Post Office closures.

 

If people love the post office in UK, then we must all fight to keep it open,....it offers a lot of services and is a reliable organisation. The government must not force its demise....but we the public need to remind this government and future governments too that Post Office is there for the people and we will fight to keep our local POs open.

Perhaps the fact that PO has won the contract to give out benefits for another few years might encourage voters to believe that the post office is worth fighting for and that closures is quite simply the wrong direction to go.

If there is something not being done well by government, or our local MP etc, then each of us a voter has a duty to speak up our feelings rather than just complain on forums like this.

Sister Afrika

Part of the problem I think is the people running the Post Office.  A few years ago they decided to change the name to Consignia at a cost of about £8million.  After a few months they decided it wasn't working and changed back to using the Post Office name at a cost of £10 million.  There's almost £20 million wasted.  If I did that with a company I would have been struck off as a Director!

In 2008 the Post Office Chief Executive (I think it was) walked away with a golden handshake of a few million pounds!  How could they afford the handshake when they have been complaining about losing money for the last few years.

I also think the banks should be getting together with the Post Office so that people can use the Post Office to make lodgements to their bank accounts.  This would be particularly useful in rural areas where, in a lot of cases, the Post Office is the main shop in the area.