Jessica Tooze and George Thomas challenge the proposals that could change Cornish life forever
As a business functioning at the heart of many rural communites, Cornwall’s isolated post offices are considered an indispensable public service.
For those facing impaired mobility, or whose local bus routes are infrequent or non-existent, the ability to complete simple tasks such as collecting pensions and paying bills are entirely reliant on the provision of an accessible post office.
It therefore comes as a huge, and hurtful blow to people in this situation that the Government plans to close 62 rural post offices across Cornwall, leaving thousands forced to travel miles to access the services many of us take for granted.
Post offices in such locations have been receiving a Government subsidy to help them provide vital services. Now the Government wants to cut this subsidy by closing one in five Cornish branches.
Flushing Post Office. Facilities such as this will be missed by elderly residents in the area. Picture by Sam Batchelor.
One of the first villages to experience the impact of a post office closure was Lanreath in 2004, offering a gloomy vision for the future of many smaller Cornish communities.
Rita Hancock, secretary for Lanreath Community Association, said: “It made the village dead – whereas people were going to the shop and bumping into others on the way, once the place was closed, you could come down to the village and wouldn’t see a soul.”
The closure was met with the most constructive response possible – the creation of a new post office and shop run and staffed by volunteers. While this was a small success story in coping with the loss of a necessity, it remains a daunting prospect for smaller villages findings themselves in the cross hairs.
Parkinson’s disease sufferer Ellen Sorrell, 80, lives near Bude is one person who will be adversely affected by the closure of her local facility. While Mrs Sorrell was originally able to use her motorised scooter to reach the post office, its imminent closure will mean having to use the infrequent public transport service into Bude. This remains a problem, since she is unable to take the vehicle onto a common bus, and therefore must use a wheelchair.
“It was a lot of hassle,” she said after having attempted to use the transport service. “You have to pre-warn the bus that you wish to travel on, and then have to have someone with you as a ‘pusher’.”
Mrs Sorrell stated that the closure could force her to change houses, or to move into a nursing home, in order to prevent a complete loss of independence.
Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro and St Austell, is a major critic of the closures of small post office branches. He underlined the problems faced by many people once their local branch is removed.
“Governments have failed to understand the importance of the financial and information centres that post offices provide.
“It makes living in villages unsustainable for people who can’t get about easily. That may be a relatively small number but it is still significant.”
Figures gathered by the post office watchdog Postwatch show that 80 per cent of rural post office customers who use the service at least once a week are 65 or over.
The face to face interaction of a local post office is a vital asset in rural communities. Picture by Sam Batchelor.
Penwith District Council’s ‘champion for older people’ Chris Goninan also felt that the closures would have a dramatic effect on this section of the demographic.
He added: “For elderly people it really is a social occasion to go out and get the pension, which a lot of them do on a weekly basis.”
The Government carried out a nine-week local area review that assessed the financial viability of Cornwall’s post offices. Local post office sub-masters and mistresses were informed of the pending threat to their branch two months before the closure lists were released, but were asked not to ‘go public’ with details of which post offices were blacklisted. Any post office manager admitting that their post office was under treat risked losing out on compensation payments. Thus the impact of the pending closures on local people has been accentuated by the distinct lack of warning.
Essentially this threat reduced the time in which a community could assemble and fight these planned changes. Had residents been aware of any risk to their local post office earlier, an opposing campaign in many villages would be well underway.
The timing of the consultation process, which coincides with the summer holiday period, has also been subject to widespread criticism. Many local people will be unavailable or occupied with the huge influx of tourists, thereby reducing the ability of those opposed to the plans to actively show their anger. As the consultation will be running over the summer months there will be less opportunities available for Parliamentary scrutiny of the proposals.
Julia Goldsworthy, MP for Falmouth and Camborne, has recognised the suspicious timing of the announcements and is involved in a passionate campaign to save Cornish post offices, which is expected to gather momentum over the coming months.
Speaking to a meeting attended by over 250 people of the Camborne and Redruth area, Julia said: “I have promised residents that I will do everything in my power to support this campaign, and though I can’t wave a magic wand, I will do my best to save these post offices.”
At the meeting, Julia urged residents to send personalised letters to the post office, as these count as individual submissions, rather than signing a petition that is counted as just one.
“If we show enough evidence that the post office is vital to the community, then there is a chance it could be saved,” added Julia.
In order to keep the business afloat, 2,500 post offices must close across the UK under the Government’s national Post Office Network Change Programme. This led to rumours that if a community managed to prevent one office from closing, another nearby would eventually be shut down.
Julia Goldsworthy denied this, stating: “That is not true. The six Cornish MPs wrote to Post Office Ltd about that very point and they assured us that each post office would be considered on its individual merits. So I would like to reassure anyone who is worried about this that campaigning to save your post office does not mean that another one will be closed.”
Post Office Ltd and Postwatch sent representatives to Bude and Wadebridge where residents of North Cornwall were given the chance to express their outrage at the proposals. One parish alone sent two busloads of people to the meetings.
Local MP Dan Rogerson organised the congregations.
“It is vital we get a good turnout at the public meetings with Post Office Limited to show them a strength of feeling against these plans,” he commented. “They have tried to mute opposition by keeping the full closure programme secret and then scheduling the consultation during the summer months.
“I am confident that people will not let their valued Post Office branches be closed by the back door.”
While the campaign continues to snowball, what can rural residents expect if the Government’s closure plans are realised in their community? Will there be light at the end of the tunnel for the hundreds of people affected if the changes occur?
Protection guidelines state that 95 per cent of the population must live within 3 miles of a post office after the reductions have taken place. Cornwall Council have looked at outreach programs, such as mobile post vans or services located in other community buildings to replace the lost post offices. This concept has already been confirmed as replacing 13 of the 62 planned closures in the county.
The council is also examining strategies offered by Essex County Council, which underwent a similar assessment in November 2007. The council asked Post Office Ltd for the opportunity to run post offices in conjunction with the company, with the additional proposal of offering local government information in branches, together with services provided by other local statutory and voluntary organisations.
Cornwall Council is keen to explore this One Stop Shop programme and St Ives MP Andrew George is fully supportive of the idea.
“There is a perpetual threat to a lot of the public service when they are run on their own. We should wait to see the post office as the public service desk in each community and expand its role.”
Yet there is another proposal that could save Cornwall’s rural communities from growing isolation.
Sir John Banham, one of the UK’s top businessmen, has produced a paper entitled Securing the Future of the Post Office Network. Supporting the council’s proposals for the merging of facilities, as well as offering more radical suggestions, the paper could instigate a major upturn in usage and profits.
Sir John, who himself lives in a rural area in West Cornwall, suggests that the post office could provide a local base from which to deliver home shopping, thereby solving the ‘last three miles’ delivery problem experienced by many online retailers. The office could also provide a base from which to place orders via touch screen.
The most forward of Banham’s amendments, however, suggests that Cornwall Council assume full responsibility of post office branches in the Duchy, thereby securing their future while reaping the benefits. The idea has been less than well received in some areas, perhaps seeming a little too radical for local politicians.
“I don’t think taking over the post offices is necessarily the right way to go about it,” said Councillor Joyce Mepsted.
“We are looking to open between 15 and 20 One Stop Shops which we may be able to combine with the post office – we need to be looking at this possibility.”
Cornwall Council has voted to seek a judicial review of the closure proposals, suggesting the use of inaccurate data during assessments and a failure of Post Office Ltd to demonstrate an understanding of the rural deprivation issues facing Cornwall.
Councillors pointed out that the 2001 census was the primary source of information for the consultation process, while noting inaccuracies such as the assumption that Dartmoor was part of Cornwall, and overestimating the Cornish population by almost 200,000 people. These latest developments provide hope that the final result may be less harmful than originally anticipated, should the review be successful.
However, it is clear that although damage could be limited, some post offices simply cannot be saved. For those villages unfortunate enough to face this prospect, authorities will need time to debate, implement, and ensure the success of coping initiatives. Meanwhile, many of Cornwall’s rural post offices will begin to close leaving dozens of communities isolated – communities that will fight to escape a fate that increasingly seems unavoidable and unfair.
Challenging proposals such as Sir John Banham’s may not please traditionally minded councillors but, for many living in Cornwall, unconventional suggestions are the only way to sustain a rural life lacking one of the world’s most conventional decent amenities.
“We will be working hard with local people to fight each and every one of these closures,” promises Julia Goldsworthy. “We will not allow this cynical choice of timing to affect our campaign to save our post offices.
“Local people are ready to fight these misguided and destructive proposals.” |
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