Why I, as an ex-postman, say we must ALL back this campaign

When I was a young postman in the early Seventies, I saw every day how the Post Office network provided a unique service, from pensions to parcels and everything in between. even more importantly perhaps, they were also at the heart of the local communities they served, and people loved them.

They still do. Post Offices are a vital part of Britain’s social fabric, and that’s why the Mail’s campaign to save them is a crusade that everyone, from all political backgrounds, should support.

Many villages and market towns have lost their bus services, their bank branches and even their pubs. Sub-Post Offices are all that remains of the glue holding these rural communities together. They are a lifeline, and it would be a travesty to lose them.

The network has already been reduced to its lowest sustainable level.

When I started work in the mid-Sixties, there were 24,000 Post Offices in the UK. In 1992, when I became secretary of the Union of Communication Workers, that figure had fallen only slightly to 21,000. But over the past quarter of a century there has been a huge decline, to 11,500. If we allow that figure to fall any lower, life outside the big cities will be severely affected.

I first worked as a postman in London, but I soon moved out to Slough, where my employers taught me to drive. I was then given the rural round of Littleworth Common, in Buckinghamshire. It included the home Secretary’s official residence, Dorneywood – I never dreamed that one day I’d hold that ministerial post myself.

I’d drive for miles between each farm, bringing the newspapers and even stopping off to lug bags of coal for elderly customers. I’d stop and chat to residents, bringing bits of news and messages from afar. I didn’t have a black and white cat on my front seat – the regulations wouldn’t permit it – but in most respects I was like an old-fashioned Postman Pat. But although the Royal Mail postal delivery service isn’t at risk, the sub-Post Offices where I used to pick up mail and chat to the staff are in danger of closing.

everyone in rural areas, especially small businesses, relies on the Post Office. And you can’t put a price on the local knowledge and watchful eyes of their staff. If, for example, Mrs Jenkins hasn’t been seen for a couple of days, the postie might be the first to notice and mention it to the Post Office staff. And for customers who are feeling lonely or isolated, who perhaps live alone, popping into the Post Office for a natter can be a daily highlight.

Without the Post Office, life in many rural places would fall apart. There used to be a saying in my union: one of our members walked or drove past every one of the 26million addresses in Britain every day, Monday to Saturday. no other organisation could make such a claim.

But it’s not only rural communities that are dependent on the local Post Office. In urban areas where industry has declined, where the steel works have closed or the mine has shut down, they are just as invaluable.

The world is changing but the Post Office has just as great a role to play. For a start, we’re all having far more packages delivered each week, as a result of internet shopping.

There’s lots of competition in the parcel market, but I can see an easy and obvious way to ensure local Post Offices benefit: they can act as collection depots. If you’re out when a parcel is brought to your home, the delivery agent could drop it off at your local Post Office for you to collect later. That ought to generate both income and custom, bringing people into the shop.

The key to survival is to treat all the challenges as business opportunities. Bank branches are closing daily – about 750 last year alone. But people still need somewhere to pay in cheques, settle their utility bills, pay off their credit cards or withdraw cash.

Many of these things can be done via online banking, but that doesn’t suit everyone, especially the elderly. And there’s certainly no fee for popping into the PO where staff can provide a friendly service and a bit of guidance.

There’s a certain justice in the thought that help with banking could help rescue the Post Office, because many people trace the start of its decline to 1982, when OAPs were first able to have their pensions paid directly into their bank accounts. Until then, they had to queue up to collect cash over the Post Office counter each Thursday morning.

The

national Federation of SubPostmasters foresaw the damage this change would do to their business and staged a major demo, but there was no way to stave it off. how could anyone have guessed that within 40 years, cash itself would be practically redundant?

The Post Office has to adapt. It needs to keep giving people new reasons to walk through the door. But I don’t believe that all these reasons have to be automatic money-spinners.

The Post Office has evolved so that profitable parts of the business help other areas to stay afloat. That’s been a basic part of its thinking ever since the days of the Penny Post, when a flat-rate stamp could carry your letter just around the corner or to the other end of the country. To learn more about how the Victorians designed the postal system to be the lifeblood of rural communities, I warmly recommend you read Flora Thompson’s lovely Lark Rise To Candleford novels. They really spell out the importance of the village Post Office, as it has been for a century-and-a-half.

If you want an illustration of how important the network still is, consider this: add up all the branches of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Asda, and Boots the chemist and there are still more local Post Offices. That’s how ubiquitous and essential the institution is.

Trying to imagine a country without it is like picturing a modern world without supermarkets: practically impossible. We cannot allow this wonderful service to fade away through complacency.

Of the country’s 11,500 local Post Offices, 53 per cent are in rural communities. In 2016, the Government said it is committed to ensuring that 90 per cent of the population lives within a mile of their nearest branch. All the major political parties are agreed we cannot let that slip any further. Yet two ominous dates are looming closer.

When the Royal Mail was privatised in 2012 and prised away from Post Office Counters (which is still owned by the Government), an agreement was struck that they would continue to use each other’s services. That agreement is due to expire in 2022. And even before that, in 2021, the government subsidy to the Post Office will run out.

These are two crucial elements that protect the entire edifice, and they are about to disappear. The Government has to tackle this now.

We cannot wait until the last minute. The very existence of our local Post Offices depends on it. And the country cannot do without them.