Post Office closures will hit village businesses

Losing their post office would seriously damage some villages' prospects of attracting new small businesses, said Stratford District Council this week.  

Commenting on a survey of post offices by members, Cllr Trevor Russel, the Council's Deputy Leader, said:  "Post offices are a vital business link for small companies, providing banking as well as postal services - and closures could deter new businesses from opening in a village."  

The survey found that Long Compton for example has about 30 businesses employing over 100 people with a combined turnover of £5-10 million. The nearest post office is ten miles away, adding time and cost to business transactions currently carried out in the village.  

"If new businesses are comparing villages and all other things are equal, the lack of a post office could tip the balance", Cllr Russel said.  

Cllr Russel added, "The survey confirmed that closing local post offices will also create severe difficulties for residents, especially older people, because of the poor public transport links to their nearest alternative, which ranges from five to 15 miles away.  Put pressure on combined businesses, e.g. village stores, possibly forcing them to close - removing another essential service and leading to job losses, certainly in the post offices themselves and possibly in associated businesses.

"Fortunately, we have not identified any post office 'at risk' imminently, but the threat is there.  The feedback from the members' survey confirms, if there was any doubt, that local post offices provide a crucial service to their communities, and any closures would aggravate problems of access to services and have serious wider knock-on effects."  

The District Council has already written to the Department of Trade and Industry arguing that because of its geographical nature, the District should be exempt from the criteria proposed to be used to decide the 2,500 post office planned for closure nationally.