North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan calls for new banking hubs for Ellesmere and Wem
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has called for more rural banking hubs in her constituency as part of a Government shake-up of the Post Office.
Earlier this week, the Government published a green paper on the future of the Post Office, which it described as currently "in crisis" in the wake of the Horizon software scandal.
The Government said the review is part of the first major shake-up of post office services in 15 years.
Announcing plans for the future of the Post Office in the House of Commons this week, minister Gareth Thomas said the network would continue to provide "critical services" – currently including banking, government and utility bill payment – to communities who cannot access them.
He added that the Government wanted to "improve and develop" the banking services the post office provides to rural communities - despite considering dropping a commitment to maintain a network of at least 11,500 branches nationwide.
The Government said some branches exist for the sole purpose of satisfing the 11,500 requirement, rather than being based on community need.
But he stopped short of going further when challenged by North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan this week, saying only that it was "equally essential" that urban communities had access to services.
The country's network of Post Offices has shrunk by almost half from a peak of around 20,000 in the 1980s, but has never fallen below the Government's minimum target of 11,500 - introduced in 2007 as part of "access criteria" aimed at defining how the network should look and how far away individuals should be from their nearest Post Office branch.
Ms Morgan had called for a "sustainable model of banking and Post Office services" to emerge as part of the review, which could include new banking hubs for north Shropshire towns such as Ellesmere and Wem.
"I was pleased to hear the minister say that the overall size and shape of the Post Office network should remain the same so that we can minimise the impact on communities, but in my constituency the size and shape of the Post Office is rapidly shrinking because of the fundamental fragility of the way it is set up," she said.
"The access criteria consider someone to be within three miles of a Post Office if that Post Office is an outreach service and open for a single hour a week. That is not acceptable for rural communities, many of which do not have a bus for many hours during the day."
Research published alongside the Green Paper showed the network adds social value of around £5.2 billion per year to households and £1.3 billion annually to small and medium sized businesses.
"The Honourable Lady references the fragility of the Post Office, and that has certainly been the case in certain communities when finding postmasters who are willing to step forward and take on the role of running a Post Office franchise," said Mr Thomas.
"If the Honourable Lady thinks it would be useful, I would be happy to speak to her separately about the specific issues that her constituents face, and to understand a little more about the specific problems she has raised."
The deadline for responses to the Government review into the Post Office will pass on October 6.
