07 September 2007
The National Consumer Council is urging the Post Office to review its closure programme to protect younger people in urban areas.
A survey by the council and the research consultancy Dr Foster, published on September 6, shows that while rural communities were largely protected from closures between 2002 and 2006, the main brunt fell on the poorest outer urban areas.
'It is vital that plans for the next 2,500 closures protect the people who would be hardest hit,' said NCC policy officer Nicola O'Reilly. 'People are as important as places in these decisions.
'The survey showed that people who most rely on post office services, such as single mums or elderly people, are often less well equipped to make their case. The Post Office must recognise this and make it easier for them to give their views.'
The study, Post office closures 2002 to 2006: lessons for 2007 to 2009, showed that the hardest-hit communities were housing estates on the outskirts of smaller cities such as Cardiff, Nottingham and Leeds, where alternative services were less plentiful.
Co-author Professor Richard Webber, of University College London, said: 'A consistent pattern is not easy to discern. Some areas of acute social need do not seem to have benefited from protection.'
PFsep2007
