28 October 2008 by Steve Lawson - Editors Comment - © Hellmail.co.uk

It is difficult to pre-judge the decision on whether Post Office Ltd will manage to hold on to the POCA (post Office Card Account) but in this instance, no news probably isn't good news at all. Invariably that has been the case for post offices across the country in recent years. Localised action groups fighting to retain their own post offices know only too well that in the end, the decisions as to which will close have been wholly the decision of Post Office Ltd working to access criteria set by government and even if on paper, the views were apparently taken into account, in the end, they mattered little at all.

One would have thought that if Post Office Ltd has managed to hold on to the POCA contract, the government would have been keen to announce it. After all, the onset of a recession needs at least a nugget of good news here and there if only to lift the mood of the electorate but the silence is deafening on this one.

One subpostmaster I spoke to today suggested that Post Office Ltd almost certainly has lost the tender but that the government won't risk announcing that now and ensuring a defeat at the Glenrothes by-election (Fife) in early November. Labour may well lose it anyway but as happened earlier this year when post office closures were temporarily halted for 'political reasons', further bad news for the future of post offices ahead of the by-election would mean certain disaster for Labour, whose candidate might just as well stay in bed. There is some speculation amongst subpostmasters at least, that the 'bad news' anouncement will soon follow the byelection with a possible 'phased' transfer of the contract.

The loss of the card account would sound the death knell for so many post offices across the UK. This last wave of closures will pale into insignificance. Given the massive cull of post offices this year, it would seem essential that Post Office Ltd retains it simply to ensure a future for small post offices, but this is about saving money and unfortunately the present government seems to have lost its way on so many social aspirations. I don't hold out a great deal of hope for the post offices that will be left. With Postwatch now gone, opposition on a local level has been virtually exstinguished. How convenient.

It will take Consumer Focus too long to be organised enough to represent consumers in quite the way that Postwatch did, if ever. Essentially the views of the public have been massively 'dumbed down' since Postwatch was disbanded and despite the governments claim that the new body would not result in a watered-down voice for consumers, most customers, particularly business, now have no one to call other than Royal Mail itself if they have a problem. Much of the leg work for this crisis is now being dumped on to groups such as Citizens Advice (mostly voluntary) that simply don't have the expertise or resources to represent citizens on a subject as emotive and far-reaching as post offices.

If the POCA has been lost by Post Office Ltd, Labour's chances of winning the next election are practically nil. Closures are deeply unpopular with voters and they won't be too chuffed to discover that not only have they lost 2,500 this year, even more will go through the government taking away the last remaining form of business for many post offices.

© Hellmail.co.uk (28 October 2008)

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