One of the most effective newspaper campaigns in terms of readers’ responses was the Daily Post’s fight to save local post offices in North Wales.
Through a sustained effort over a number of months, its petition collected 40,000 signatures and attracted support from organisations across the region.
Given this, it is outrageous how the British and Welsh Assembly Governments continue to conveniently ignore the decimation of the post office network across Wales.
Worst still, civil servants are refusing to give any further information on the scale of the proposed closures here in North Wales until after this year’s local elections in May, leaving post office staff all across the region in limbo regarding their future employment.
At the moment, it would seem that the best we can hope for is the closure of around 60 post offices across North Wales, which will have a devastating effect on the ability of local people, especially the elderly, to access many services which they depend upon.
Of course, the UK Government conveniently chooses ignore the fact that the current crisis in the post office is down to their policies of withdrawing key services such as benefits, pensions, TV licences and passports. In addition, they have encouraged the payment of many bills through the direct debit route.
For an increasing number of people, particularly our more elderly citizens, this is completely inappropriate as they rely on the option of paying their bills through their local post office.
In Wales, ministers will no doubt get the Assembly equivalent of Sir Humphrey Appleby to put together an appropriate statement which emphasises the fact that Post Office policy is not a devolved matter, and that the closure of post offices are a matter for the managers of Post Office Ltd and the UK Government.
Well, for the thousands who signed the Daily Post petition, that just isn’t good enough, especially as our elected representatives in Cardiff Bay have had plenty of notice to ensure that post offices in North Wales remain at the heart of the communities they represent.
Given the way that they all unashamedly clambered to support the Daily Post campaign during the last Assembly elections, it is not as if members need a constant reminder of the vital role that post offices play in providing crucial services for the more vulnerable in our society, especially within rural areas
Time and time again, we have heard the First Minister talking about ‘clear red water’ between Westminster and Cardiff. If that is true, then why doesn’t he adopt this stance on post office closures in Wales and encourage his Government to be more proactive in opposing them and, more importantly, developing a solution that would keep them open.
At the very least, the Assembly should make it an immediate priority to set up a task force, in partnership with the National Federation of Subpostmasters, to examine how more services at both an Assembly and local authority level can be managed and run through the post office network in Wales.
Such a review should also examine how more individuals and businesses can be encouraged to pay for their services via this system.
It is the very least that the post office network, so vital to many of our communities across North Wales, deserves.
Through a sustained effort over a number of months, its petition collected 40,000 signatures and attracted support from organisations across the region.
Given this, it is outrageous how the British and Welsh Assembly Governments continue to conveniently ignore the decimation of the post office network across Wales.
Worst still, civil servants are refusing to give any further information on the scale of the proposed closures here in North Wales until after this year’s local elections in May, leaving post office staff all across the region in limbo regarding their future employment.
At the moment, it would seem that the best we can hope for is the closure of around 60 post offices across North Wales, which will have a devastating effect on the ability of local people, especially the elderly, to access many services which they depend upon.
Of course, the UK Government conveniently chooses ignore the fact that the current crisis in the post office is down to their policies of withdrawing key services such as benefits, pensions, TV licences and passports. In addition, they have encouraged the payment of many bills through the direct debit route.
For an increasing number of people, particularly our more elderly citizens, this is completely inappropriate as they rely on the option of paying their bills through their local post office.
In Wales, ministers will no doubt get the Assembly equivalent of Sir Humphrey Appleby to put together an appropriate statement which emphasises the fact that Post Office policy is not a devolved matter, and that the closure of post offices are a matter for the managers of Post Office Ltd and the UK Government.
Well, for the thousands who signed the Daily Post petition, that just isn’t good enough, especially as our elected representatives in Cardiff Bay have had plenty of notice to ensure that post offices in North Wales remain at the heart of the communities they represent.
Given the way that they all unashamedly clambered to support the Daily Post campaign during the last Assembly elections, it is not as if members need a constant reminder of the vital role that post offices play in providing crucial services for the more vulnerable in our society, especially within rural areas
Time and time again, we have heard the First Minister talking about ‘clear red water’ between Westminster and Cardiff. If that is true, then why doesn’t he adopt this stance on post office closures in Wales and encourage his Government to be more proactive in opposing them and, more importantly, developing a solution that would keep them open.
At the very least, the Assembly should make it an immediate priority to set up a task force, in partnership with the National Federation of Subpostmasters, to examine how more services at both an Assembly and local authority level can be managed and run through the post office network in Wales.
Such a review should also examine how more individuals and businesses can be encouraged to pay for their services via this system.
It is the very least that the post office network, so vital to many of our communities across North Wales, deserves.