Shropshire MEP Neena Gill says don’t blame Europe for the closure of post offices, it’s all down to market forces and economics.
She is urging people to help save post offices by posting more letters. And she’s even suggesting collecting all unwanted junk mail and popping it in your nearest post box - thereby reversing the decline in mail volumes.
Her call comes as the county learns of the closure of yet another post office. Post Office Ltd revealed yesterday that Randlay Post Office in Telford will be axed, with the closure expected at the end of October.
Twenty-eight Shropshire post offices were earmarked for closure in April.
Last month it was announced 13 would shut, 13 would be replaced by outreach services and Shrewsbury’s Greenfields Post Office would be saved.
Ms Gill says recent reports have blamed the European Union for the crisis, but she believes other factors are responsible.
“Post office cuts are the result of a number of causes, including Royal Mail cost-cutting, the popularity of e-mail, and benefits being paid directly into people’s bank accounts.
“Secondly, the postal market in the UK was liberalised by the UK government in the 1990s. Recent EU laws had no effect on UK postal services.
“So the truth is that these closures are based in economics, market forces, and the viability of sub-post office businesses.”
The Labour MEP describes it as a “real problem” but one that is created Britain, not in Brussels.
“Rather than looking to Europe for a scapegoat, allow me to suggest a different course of action,” she said. “People aren’t sending enough post anymore, yet we’re receiving more unsolicited post than ever before.
“If you really want to make a difference, take the freepost envelopes from the junk mail that comes through the door every day, and pop them in the nearest post box. You don’t even have to fill them in.”
She said postal workers have told her if enough people do it the decline in mail volumes could be reversed.
“Only positive action will have a positive effect,” she said. “Blaming Brussels certainly won’t.”
By Lizzie Yates
2 Comments
Lets not miss the bigger picture here.
It is not the loss of the ability to get your pension or car tax etc that is a stake, these services can be provided by other, cheaper means, even if these means are not too popular with many of the older generation. What we are losing as a nation is the ability to post that parcel (Mum’s present) or send that recorded delivery etc. The Post Office Network is, or should we say was, the front end of the Royal Mail, ie the Postal Service. The payment of pensions and benefits etc through the existing Post Office Branches was a cost effective use of government resources at the time when the payments were introduced, as was issuing car tax, TV licenses etc. This has now been superseded by modern payment and banking methods, however the government is intent on throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Before long we will not only have to travel to the nearest town or main post office to post our mail, we will find that we will have to go there to collect it as well!
I’m afraid she is be very economical with the truth. These so called ‘market forces’ have come into play directly because of the European Union. If she was an MEP worth her salt she must know about the ‘Objectives of Community Postal Policy Framework’.
Up to 10,000 Post Offices could close in the coming years and the Royal Mail as we know it will cease to exist. Another big slice of the salami falls to the E.U.