Tuesday, 23 October 2007

The First Cut is the Deepest

Sadly it appears that the pound speaks more highly than the need as far as the Post Office is concerned.

The announcement of the first Post Office closures in Scotland are being announced today. The Post Office Ltd is announcing these in phases and the first trance of these for Glasgow, central Scotland and Argyll are a lot deeper than expected according to the Scotsman.

24 of the 44 offices earmarked for closure are in Glasgow, while rural areas in the Cental Belt and West have come out least scathed. What is apparent is that the cuts appear to have been based on the type of business each office carries out rather than the reliance on such business the local communities may require of their post office. Therefore most of the cuts appear to have come in the poorer areas.

Last month the National Consumer Council issued a report which highlighted that found that people most reliant on post offices, such as the elderly and unemployed, were the least likely or able to lobby for them to stay open. These cuts announced for Scotland seems to bear out this that the Post Office is hurting still further those most reliant on their services but is favouring those who keep them most profitable.

There are now fears for the rest of Scotland including Lothian following this first look at what services will be cut.

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