Rural post offices get cash help (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Rural post offices get cash help

RURAL post offices were this week thrown a cash lifeline of £450 million.

The money will be paid over three years to the Royal Mail Group which currently spends £3 million a week keeping 8,500 branches in business, the Government announced on Monday.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said: "Post offices play a vital role in many rural communities.

"They are much more than simply providers of mail services.

"In many places the post office is also the village shop, the local community centre, the business exchange and the bank."

Local postmasters welcomed the move and told of the difficulties facing rural post offices.

Graham Clarke, who is the postmaster at Ashton Keynes said: "Any postmaster would be reluctant to invest in his business under the current uncertainties of the future.

"Without Government help the vast majority of rural post offices will close within the next 12 months."

"Next spring we will be losing 40 per cent of our work and we want work to replace that loss.

"Nobody wants to take handouts but hopefully it will help stabilise the situation for a couple of years while more work is found."

The money will give Post Office Ltd, which is part of the Royal Mail Group and runs the post offices, the opportunity to try new ways of providing services in rural areas.

Sharing post offices premises with other businesses, modernisation of existing premises and mobile and satellite post offices are all possible options.

Sub-postmaster of South Cerney post office, Charles Kingsbury, said: "We don't know how this will affect rural post offices because we don't know exactly how the money is going to be used.

"It talks about modernisation but what does that mean? Painting the place?

"Our post office is three miles from Cirencester, there's one in Cricklade and Kemble as well as other places.

"But they are all needed, they are far enough apart to have their own purpose.

"I think most postmasters will say it's a good thing because the Government is giving support, but more needs to be done considerably.

"The problem has arisen because the Post Office was not allowed to invest the profits it made - it just went straight back to Government.

"That's why everyone is panicking now. It would have been avoidable if they had been allowed to invest.

"It's got to be just the beginning. The Government has to look at other ways of keeping these businesses open, which they are doing - it just takes time."