Post Office service is still second class
Jan 24 2009 By Brian Daniel, The Journal
POST office users in five Northumberland villages have been given a boost with ‘improved’ services. But some say the only improvement they would like is a fully reinstated branch.
Belsay, Gilsland, Netherton, Stannington and Rochester have all secured improvements in their proposed postal services, as part of an ongoing review of Post Office Ltd’s decisions to scale back services sparked by pressure from communities working with Northumberland County Council.
In a month where many post offices are closing, Belsay has been upgraded from a hosted outreach service to a partnered outreach; Gilsland from a mobile outreach to a changed hosted outreach; Netherton from home service outreach to hosted outreach. Stannington will now be a changed hosted outreach; and Rochester is now a hosted outreach rather than a mobile outreach.
It is unclear how new arrangements will be implemented at each village.
But at Gilsland, the change could see postal services being delivered at the village hall, a move local people were recently consulted on, rather than through a van as first proposed.
Last night, current postmistress Elsie McLachlan agreed this was an improvement but said users would only have been entirely happy if the review had resulted in the full reinstatement of the post office in her village shop.
She said: "I would say it is a better solution to having the van, but the best idea would be if they changed the decision to close the post office. Once we lose the post office, the viability of the shop is under threat."
At Belsay, it had been proposed that a member of staff from Stobhillgate post office in Morpeth would provide postal services in the village shop.
Instead, shop owner Stephanie Jarron is being subsidised to offer some postal services, with the new arrangement in place since November.
She said the system works but only because of the success of the shop.
The Post Office Ltd review is looking at 22 changes in postal services in Northumberland, including three branches already closed. None of the closures have been reversed thus far although those at Longframlington, Otterburn and Whitfield are still being considered.
Fourstones, Humshaugh and Longhorsley, which were marked for a reduction in services, are also still being looked at.
Leader of the county council Coun Jeff Reid said: "We hope that by dialogue with the Post Office we will able to influence remaining proposals and will be better placed to respond to future changes.
"We are still hopeful the needs of the region’s communities can be met."
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