Sowing the seeds of a post office counter revolution

Either the government or Alastair Campbell claim that the taxpayer will save £400m through the payment of benefits by electronic transfer rather than over the PO counter. How much is to be lost in the process? What cost/benefit analysis parameters were employed in this evaluation? How much increased travel will be incurred? How much less personal contact? What social damage may ensue?

Is this the brave new world, the creation of non-community through vastly reduced personal contact as online communications become more the norm? Post offices are now online. Shouldn't we be revitalising the still-public-sector PO network by installing ATMs in their walls, creating around them IT, advice and social centres that become a more thriving focus in the community?
Martin Goldman
Cambridge
martin@goldman.co.uk



• Your leader (April 14) rightly placed the future of rural banking services in the Post Office, but wrongly suggested that the cost of change should be paid by the exchequer. Rural bank closures are inevitable in the long run.

The concession we really need from the banks is not to keep unviable branches open indefinitely, but to perform a graceful withdrawal, giving Post Offices time to assume their banking functions, plus financial support to enable the change. Despite the advantages of the Horizon IT platform now being installed in all branches, there is no budget for post offices to meet the training, manpower and security costs of offering a full banking service to rural businesses and families.

The banks are simply shucking off the cost of their customer service obligations in rural areas. Why should postmasters and taxpayers pick up the cost? The banks should pay.
Nigel Burke
Head of policy, Countryside Alliance
nigel-burke@ countryside-alliance.org



• Your leader refers only to rural post offices. Yet many urban sub-post offices also derive at least 40% of their income from benefit transactions.

I have one of the poorest constituencies in Britain. Typically, the sub-post office is in a small parade of shops, serving a densely populated residential area. While other small shops have closed, the sub-post office thrives, both as a "social bank" and convenience store.

The government has already given an assurance that cash payments can continue for those who do not want automated credit transfer, but these remaining customers are unlikely to sustain the sub-post offices. The future lies, as you point out, in bringing sub-post offices into the new economy. As was clear, from those who lobbied me on Wednesday, people who run sub-post offices are keen to modernise. Through the Horizon project, in which the government is investing £500m, sub-post offices are getting online.
Joan Ruddock MP