Post Office accused of ‘smoke and mirrors’ to win £50m funding

Post Office bosses are accused of failing Scots communities after admitting one in six branches only opens a few hours a week.

Almost 2,000 of the Post Office’s 11,635 UK branches are “outreach services” such as mobile vans or pop-up counters in community centres or libraries, we can reveal. The company’s official tally of branches also includes parcel Drop and Collect points in convenience stores.

The Post Office receives an annual subsidy of £50 million from the UK Government on condition it keeps 11,500 branches open and yesterday critics accused the organisation of using “smoke and mirrors” to hit the total. They point to official figures revealing 1,901 branches are not full-time or provide full services.

SNP MP Marion Fellows, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Post Offices, criticised the rising number of outreach branches, saying: “These fall far short of what the majority of people want or need.

“Post Office branches are a vital part of any town, not only because they handle letters and parcels, but because they are also the only way many people can reach a bank when hundreds have closed in Scotland.”

Scores of sub post offices at risk across Scotland amid falling revenues and rising costs

Fellows, the MP for Motherwell, questioned including “Drop and Go” facilities – often just a service offered by an existing shop – in overall branch numbers.

She said: “It is an example of the ‘smoke and mirrors’ policy being operated by Post Office management.

“We have been pursuing the Post Office for clarity and transparency on its policy for the future of Post Offices as we know them. What form they will take and what we can expect of a much- valued and needed service? They are desperately needed by our communities, especially in rural Scotland where many banks have closed and people really need a post office.”

Many former Post Office services – such as buying a TV licence or road tax – are now available online but the rollout of superfast broadband has yet to reach many rural areas in Scotland.

Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, says paltry incomes from running local Post Office branches is making many sub-postmasters close.

“They are not being encouraged financially by the Post Office to keep businesses open,” she said.

“Meanwhile banks are closing and taking with them their cash dispensers.

“Worryingly, the Post Office is not prioritising letters but instead focussing on the greater profit brought by parcels.

“I have constituents who are missing hospital appointments because their letters are arriving too late.”

© London Portrait Photoqrapher-DAVID WOOLFALL

She adds that unreliable broadband makes online banking an ordeal.

“Constituents tell me they give up because of poor broadband and get in their cars to drive miles to a bank whereas in the past, they walked to the local branch or Post Office.

“Disappearing cash dispensers cannot be replaced by cash-back at supermarkets because some have stopped that service.

“We all need cash for everyday transactions and there are many now budgeting with whatever is in their purse, in the current economic climate.”

While the Post Office has 1,334 branches in Scotland, it was last week unable to say how many of these were full-time static branches, and how many were outreach branches.

At the beginning of September 2022 there were 51,272 cash machines in the UK but only 78% of were free to use. The total number of ATMs in the UK peaked in 2015 but has fallen each year since then.

Eight million people in the UK still rely on cash, reports the Access to Cash Review, and they include elderly and other cash-savvy age groups.

The Post Office said its Drop and Collect points are in small stores which are open for long hours, giving customers the ability to drop off and collect parcels outside normal office house. It said the number of branches has risen since the House of Commons report compiled its figures, to 11,650, of which 150 are Drop and Collect facilities. That expansion continues, and it expects to have 250 such branches open across the UK by March.

It said: “We publish the size and the different format make-up of our 11,500-plus branch network every year on our website. We have over 1,300 Post Offices in Scotland and use our limited funding from the Government to provide access to our services to as many customers as possible.

“For some rural communities, where there can be 200 inhabitants, an outreach Post Office operating for a few hours caters to their needs, particularly if there are no premises that can actually host a Post Office. In contrast, in urban areas changes to shopping habits has fuelled growth in the returns, collections and prepaid parcels segments of the market. Post Office is rolling out its Drop and Collect format to cater to this market. Transactions are done on a handheld device so retailers don’t need to sacrifice significant floor space from their retail business.

“It’s driving footfall to retail stores which host this new format and helping to keep local and independent businesses on the high street open.”

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‘Two hours on a Monday afternoon? You’ve got to be quick’

“You have to be quick if you want to catch it,” said John Duncan, community historian and long-time resident of Newtongrange, in Midlothian, writes Janet Boyle.

He points to a sign that says his local post office is only open for two hours on Monday afternoons.

The town of 6,000 residents is nine miles from Edinburgh and a popular commuter-belt community with young families.

“We don’t have a bank and the post office is just open between 1.30pm and 3.30pm once a week. It is hardly adequate,” Duncan 62, says.

“Midlothian communities are expected to grow and with that, the real need for banks and post offices.

“Our local post office branch is set up with its limited hours in the local library, which we hope does itself, not become part of council cuts.”

It is part of an outreach network of very limited access branches and counted as branches by the Post Office.

Councillor for Midlothian South, Ellen Scott, points to the spiralling decline of post offices.

“It is a sign of our times that post offices and banks are closing their doors in towns and villages.

Perhaps “Post Office Visiting Service” wording might be more appropriate, or “Post Office Mobile Service”, like the banks use.

“Both Gorebridge and Newtongrange lost all their banks too. Gorebridge, just up the road, runs a post office service from the ScotMid Shop.”

Duncan believes that driving to post offices and banks in other towns defeats the health message to exercise more.

“There is a great drive to encourage people to walk to local amenities and not drive everywhere but where is the incentive when you have to jump in the car to get to a bank or a post office that’s open?

“Folk out at work five days are less likely to use the post office if it is only open two hours a week.

“If people get out the habit of using the post office it becomes self-perpetuating and they stop using it altogether.”

He adds that those who have lived in the town all their years and now retired are being slowly cut off from the lives they once knew.

“The older we become, the greater the need to have local amenities not too far from home.

“We must be mindful of those who have helped build Newtongrange and respect what makes their lives enjoyable and easier.”