Not a happy New Year for the post office

Serenaded in with a lusty rendition of Auld Langs Syne and champagne cork popping we celebrated the arrival of another New Year. Yet, for the post office network, 2008 will be nothing short of disastrous.

Even before the bubbly has gone flat the Government begins its first bloody-minded resolution of closing down branches.

After the scandalous farce of 'consultation' in the past few months the waiting is now over for the first wave of 2,500 post offices to be axed. The year will be full of heartbreaking despair and suffering for communities and post offices up and down the country.

No doubt the Post Office will continue to rub salt into the wounds with typical high-handed arrogance and cynical spin, which includes gagging subpostmasters from telling the truth. It is now compounded with those dreadful patronising 'people's post office' adverts that have cost £10m and are nothing but an insult to a betrayed network. Surely such cash could have been better used as a lifeline for the most isolated and vulnerable communities.

Over the past 12 months I have visited dozens of post office branches - my total tally since Financial Mail began the campaign five years ago now stands at more than 100. Despite some humbling experiences in 2007 - including a trip to Basra to discover how vital the post office is to the most isolated outposts - it was a small detail that sticks most poignantly in my mind.

During one particular branch visit, an anxious subpostmistress told me how her ten-year-old son had started wetting his bed. It transpired the child was desperately worried that should their isolated post office be forced to close down then the family would have to leave the area - an all too realistic scenario. All I could do was offer my deepest sympathies.

I wish Post Office managing director Alan Cook could have been there to share what goes on in the network and understand the real effect closures have on individuals, families and communities. But of course, he would not have been able to attend. He and his overpaid flunkies are always far too busy holding strategy meetings in a plush London ivory tower.

Toby Walne

toby@walne.co.uk

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