Cash injection won't stop post office closures (From Western Telegraph)

Cash injection won't stop post office closures

The National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) offered a cautious welcome to last week's Welsh Office announcement that £48 million will go towards maintaining rural post offices in Wales, but said it would not stop closures.

The money, said to be about £16 million each year for the next three years, is part of a total of £450 million aimed at ensuring the survival of rural post offices throughout the UK.

There are 180 post offices in the West Wales region, which includes Pembrokeshire and parts of Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.

Rob Jones, West Wales branch president of the NFSP, said: "My initial thoughts were to be dancing in the street as this is a lot of money. However, that has to be tempered by what the money is actually being spent on. This is not new money but was paid to the Government by the post office over previous years."

But, he said, the money would not stop rural post offices closing down as it did nothing to effect the decrease in real-term wage levels expected following the introduction of the Government's automated benefits payment scheme next year.

He said that money in what is known as the flexible fund was likely to be used to implement a hub-and-spoke system where one office would provide a post van to outlying villages twice a week once their own offices closed due to them no longer being viable businesses.

Mr Jones added that the situation the Royal Mail Group now found itself in, losing approximately £3 million each week when it was a profitable company only two years ago, was due to 'dreadful management as far as business matters go and very poor investment'.

John Murphy, subpostmaster of Kilgetty and Tenby post offices, said: "If there is any help available then all I can say is thank you very much, but I would much rather be properly paid for the work I do than get a grant."