Updated post office coming to Launceston soon

Congratulations to Julie and her team at Launceston Post Office. I've just heard that they are going to be one of the branches upgraded to 'main post office' status shortly.

This means a refurbishment and longer opening hours but no loss in services or products. The new opening hours will include full day opening (9.00am to 5.30pm) six days a week, including Saturdays.

And, alongside that refurbishment, a side entrance will be created that will, at last, provide proper access for those who cannot manage the steps at the front of the building. I know this is something that Julie has been trying to change for some time and it's good to see that happening.

All this is thanks to a three year investment and support programme which is the largest in the history of the Post Office. It's just one of the things that the coalition government is doing to support and guarantee the future of the post office network. In the past, governments of both colours have closed thousands of branches. But the Liberal Democrats in the coalition have made a guarantee of no more branch closures and this investment effort.

As part of the transformation of Launceston Post Office, the branch will be closed for a week from Thursday 21st February through to re-opening on Wednesday 27th February. During that time, customers can get post office services from South Petherwin and Lifton.

Tweet

Cornish Post Offices saved from further closures by the Liberal Democrats

The future of Post Offices in Cornwall has been secured by Liberal Democrat Business Minister, Ed Davey.

After ending Labour’s Post Office closure programme, which saw more than 7100 Post Offices disappear in their 13 years in office, Ed Davey has announced that a ten-year deal between the Post Office and the Royal Mail has been reached. The deal gives additional certainty to subpostmasters across the UK and covers the full range of Royal Mail products available at post offices such as first and second class post, parcels, air mail, recorded and special deliveries. Before Labour came to power, the Conservatives had a closure programme of their own and many thousands of branches were closed under their rule.

The deal adds to other recent progress for the Post Office, with extra Government cash kicking in, new national and local government contracts won, successful piloting of new models to transform many local post offices and improvements in financial services offered.

Labour left Royal Mail in a terrible mess and it is Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government who have finally put Royal Mail and the Post Office on a secure footing that mean that we will never see a repeat of the devastating closures that happened under the last government such as Newport in Launceston.

Local MP Dan Rogerson said:

"Post Offices are a vital part of our communities and are the lynchpin of our towns and villages. I’ve been campaigning with residents over the last few years to keep local post offices open and to re-instate branches such as the newly re-opened post office in Port Isaac."

“More than 20 million people visit a Post Office every week to manage their finances, renew passports for holidays or to send letters to loved ones, and hundreds of thousands of pensioners rely on them every day for their pensions.”

Commenting further, Business Minister Ed Davey MP said:

“A year ago I set out a radical plan to transform Post Office’s future, with £1.34bn of Government support and investment but without any closure programmes. Since then the Post Office has made good progress to become more competitive, building on its strengths.

“While it will take several years to turn round the Post Office’s finances, it’s increasingly clear the reforms are beginning to work. The 10-year deal struck between Royal Mail and the Post Office will give subpostmasters and others greater confidence. The signs are extremely encouraging for the future of the Post Office.”

Under the Labour Government, Post Office numbers fell by more than 7100, or 38%. In March 2010, there were 11,905 post offices in the UK. Post Office Ltd remains in 100% public ownership. A new Board has been appointed to oversee the Post Office as an independent business with certainty about its future.

Tweet

Launceston Post Office future secured - UPDATED

After months of uncertainty, the good news emerges that the future of Launceston Post Office in the town centre is secured.

As local residents will know, the Post Office branch has been run by a company on a short term rolling contract for a couple of years. Proposals were brought forward to move it to Newport which would have been another blow to the town centre and all the shops there.

Working together with the town council and local traders, Cornwall Councillor Sasha Gillard-Loft and myself persuaded the Post Office to halt that move and to look for a new sub-postmaster or mistress who would take over the business in its current location or another town centre property. We organised a meeting with the Post Office and interested parties at which they agreed to what we wanted and they have advertised the business and held interviews.

I was very glad to hear this afternoon that Julie Allen of Pat's Greetings Cards will be becoming the new sub-postmistress. I know that the whole town will be very glad to hear the news and will be wishing her all the best when she takes over officially on July 15th.

UPDATE - Julie has emailed me to say:

"I can confirm that the Post Office will stay where it is currently, just restaffed and restocked to the level the town deserves! We hope to "plug" a few gaps in lines not currently available in Launceston, including Art supplies. Pat's will also continue unchanged in its current location."

Two bits of good news for Launceston

This morning I've had two pieces of local good news.

The first concerns Launceston Post Office. Tim Nickolls has been in touch to say that the landlord has agreed a three month extension to the lease for the current operators and so the threat of a temporary closure over the summer months has been lifted.

The second concerns the 90 year old lady who is being made homeless and the Council did not rate as being a top priority. The new Homechoice system has now kicked in and under the new grading (A-E) system she is now rated as A - meaning top priority. Clearly the old (district council) system was not working properly and it appears, at least in this case, that the new (One Cornwall) system has correctly identified the level of need in this case.

I'm particularly grateful to Cathy Hadfield, one of the senior housing managers, for helping to sort this case and for all that she and her team have done to put the new system in place. As we all recognise, there may be glitches in the new system, but she is ready and able to sort them out.

Post Office crisis postponed - we hope

Last week I reported that there was a very real danger that Launceston Post Office would have to close for a period over the summer as the landlord had not been in touch with the current operators about an extension to the lease. The deadline given then was close of play last night.

I am now told that there have been discussions between the different parties and a lease extension has been agreed.

Phew.

Launceston Post Office - just when things looked to be going well

The saga of Launceston Post Office has taken a worrying turn.

Tim Nickolls of the Post Office has been in touch to say:

"We have this week had discussions with all of the various people who had expressed interest in applying for the subpostmastership of Launceston and there appear to be at least 2 parties at the current time who seem committed to move forward with a formal application.

On the negative side, as you will know Interim Enterprises the company that currently operates the Post Office branch, have been given notice by the landlord to vacate by the end of May. Although I had been given an assurance by Kivells that the landlord was very happy to extend Interim's temporary occupancy by a further 3 months to allow (hopefully) for a town centre solution to be established, Interim have advised me that they have still not heard anything from the landlord or Kivells in relation to this - despite several prompts for me. The head of Interim has today informed me that if this has not been satisfactorily resolved by close of play on Monday, they will be issuing redundancy notices to their staff and planning for vacating in May as originally instructed by the landlord. Naturally I do not want this to happen, as it will almost certainly lead to a period of closure with no replacement service in place. However, I can understand their position and their obligations to their staff. In the eventuality that this issue is not resolved I will let you know."

Whilst the news that at least two serious bidders are ready to submit applications is very welcome, the other part of the message is very concerning. If a deal to ensure that the current company can carry on until a new postmaster is ready to take over cannot be agreed by the end of Monday then the Post Office will close at the end of May.

Like Tim Nickolls, I understand why Interim have had to take the action they have. Having heard how reasonable the landlord has been over other matters, I believe that this is not a crisis yet. But clearly things need to move very swiftly over the weekend or the town will be without a Post Office for some months in the summer.

If this were to happen then businesses and local residents would suffer immensely. Those hardest hit would be people without cars who rely on being able to get their pensions or other benefits from the Post Office.

Should the worst come to the worst, I have asked the Post Office to site a mobile post office van in the town centre to cover the period until a new sub-postmaster can start work. But that should be thought of only as a worst case scenario.

Post Office Ltd pledges to keep town centre branch

Great news following the meeting I chaired with Post Office Ltd on Wednesday. They have agreed that Launceston Post Office needs to stay in the town centre and they have rejected the proposal to move the branch to Newport.

They haven't accepted the one application on the table for a town centre postmaster, but have agreed to re-advertise the position so that the people who have expressed an interest in the last few days can be properly considered. I know that there are several strong contenders out there and so I am increasingly confident that we will keep our town centre branch.

Sincere thanks to Post Office Ltd for listening to what we had to say on Wednesday.

Email from Tim Nickolls of the Post Office:

To confirm our telephone conversation, Post Office Ltd has taken the decision not to proceed at the current time with the potential relocation of the Launceston Post Office branch to the Newport area. We believe that circumstances have changed significantly in recent days/weeks with regard to the town centre (ie more favourable terms being offered for the current property and a number of possible other partners/premises coming forward) and we feel that we would like to explore these possible solutions for the current problem. At the present time, we will not be offering appointment to the individual interviewed Wednesday for the on-site option.

This does not mean that all is resolved - retaining a service in the town centre still depends on us reaching agreement with a suitable partner, offering suitable premises. However, I will be doing all that I can to ensure that the current impetus is not lost and I hope that the various parties in attendance at Wednesday's meeting will also be assisting where they can.

We will now begin the process of re-advertising the vacancy for the subpostmastership of the Launceston branch and we will be contacting the various parties who have already been in touch with us.

Please let me know if you require any further information at the current time.

Regards

Tim Nickolls

Network Development Manager South West
Post Office Ltd, 1st Floor Admin, Swansea Mail Centre, Swansea, SA1 1AA

Launceston Post Office - latest

We held a very productive meeting with representatives from the Post Office today discussing the future of Launceston Post Office.

The PO explained that they had not had a permanent tenant for a number of years and the landlord wanted a long term deal. The PO did not feel this was possible at the moment and so they were given notice to leave the premises by the end of May.

The only application up until three weeks ago came from the person who wanted to move the PO to Newport. Three weeks ago another applicant came forward with the desire to keep the business in town. Both of these applicants have been interviewed today.

The Cornwall councillors - Sasha Gillard-Loft, Phil Parsons and myself, together with the Town Council and the Chamber of Commerce - all expressed the strong desire to keep the PO in town. Whilst we do not criticise the person who wants to move the Post Office to Newport, we all feel that it would be better for the town as a whole if it remains in the town centre. Many shops gain a trade boost from people visiting the Post Office and would suffer if it moved to Newport. Whilst Newport has parking, the venue is almost inaccesible for pedestrians and has little public transport. And, whilst it is a bit more convenient for those in the Ridgegrove and St Stephens end of town, that does not make up for the damage it would do to the town centre.

The Post Office told us that their wish was for the venue to stay in the town centre. We told them that, since the landlord had indicated that he would allow a lower rent and a rent holiday and Cornwall Council would provide between 50% and 100% rate relief, there were a number of other people who would be interested in applying to run a town centre post office if the current applicant did not meet the criteria.

We will not find out for another 48 hours or so what the outcome of today's interviews is, but I hope that we will hear then that the Post Office is staying in the town centre or, at least, that other town centre applications are being invited.

Unfortunately, it appears that the local papers said that there would be a public meeting at 4pm on the issue. This was never planned but the three Cornwall Councillors stayed behind after our meeting with the Post Office to chat to members of the public and press who turned up to tell them what had been discussed. I hope everyone understood that it was not our fault that a meeting was wrongly advertised and they seemed to go away, as we did, with a bit more hope than before.

Launceston Post Office

Not surprisingly, my revelation that the Royal Mail are planning to close Launceston Post Office and move to Newport has led to a lot of discussion in the town and has made the news (including my own appearance on Radio Cornwall).

The good news is that Royal Mail say that they are open to new offers until the end of the month - so if anyone can find suitable premises and comes forward offering to run a post office in the town, they will look at the proposal.

A second piece of good news is that Royal Mail managers have agreed to come to the town to talk to councillors and interested parties about the plans and to hear concerns. I'm currently trying to arrange a suitable meeting.

The bad news is that apparent spin that Royal Mail have put on the decision. I understand that their landlord offered them a new long lease and Royal Mail refused it. However Royal Mail are now saying that they had been given notice to quit the building, implying that their hand was forced when in fact they could have committed to the town for many years but chose not to.

Shocking plans to close Launceston Post Office

I have uncovered plans by Royal Mail to close Launceston Post Office and move it to a new base outside the town centre. There is a total lack of public consultation and that the likely new location is all but inaccessible to pedestrians.

Until a year ago, Launceston had two post offices - in the town centre and at Newport. In addition, there were numerous post office services in the villages around the town. Since the last round of closures, the people of Launceston have had to rely on the main town post office and part time or home services in some villages.

I am told that they have been unable to find a permanent postmaster who can make a profit. I understand that they have considered other locations in the town centre but have been unable to find anyone to take the business on.

The current thinking is that the post office will move to the empty Newport Grill building. Royal Mail say that they have secured parking and that the building is accessible to disabled people. However I also understand that another location in the Newport area is also under consideration. It seems amazing that just a year after closing Newport Post Office they are planning to move back to that area.

This is a shocking development just a year after the last round of post office closures which decimated the service in North Cornwall. It has been apparent to all local residents that the current situation was unsatisfactory, but the loss of the town centre post office will hit local people very hard.

A post office in Newport will be very difficult for many Launceston residents to reach. The area is fairly inaccessible to pedestrians and lacks footpaths. I am also concerned that there may well not be enough parking for all customers. Customers using public transport will also find a Newport Post Office difficult to reach.

It will also be another nail in the coffin of town centre shops as even more potential customers are forced to go out of town.

Together with my colleague Sasha Gillard-Loft, I'm calling for a full public consultation by Royal Mail before these plans are allowed to go ahead. We are also planning to use the new Community Area Network Panel to hold an inquiry into the proposal.

Post Office closure consultation was a sham says report

Perhaps Cornwall's Conservatives have been learning from the Government on how not to conduct a consultation.

A report out today from the House of Commons Public Acounts Committee says that ministers showed a "real lack of concern" for communities across the Westcountry when ordering the closure of dozens of post offices across the region - including Newport Post Office in Launceston.

The report says that the consultation was 'little more than window dressing'. By stating the number of closures in advance, the Government had, to all intents and purposes, already taken the decision they were consulting on.

The report goes on to say that few people were aware that there was a consultation and that the savings achieved by closing the post offices were comparatively small.

Outrageously, the Government has already brushed the report aside. The minister responsible has said that, despite the failure to consult and take the decision properly, the decision stands.

Sounds a lot like Cllr Robertson.