MP Presses Minister on Post Office

Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, was one of a group of London MPs who went to meet Department of Trade & Industry Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, about Post Office services in London.

“The two main issues we raised were the closure of sub Post Offices and the poor standards of service in London” said Mr Gerrard. “The programme of Post office closures has lead to a number of sub Post Office being closed locally. I told the Minister that the consultation carried out on these closures appeared to be a complete sham. The Post Office Management had already made their minds up about the closures, and paid no attention to representations from local people or politicians. They should be listening to what the users have to say, and taking account of the effects especially on elderly people.”

“I have had a lot of complaints from local residents about the standard of service. Deliveries are unreliable, letters are delivered to the wrong address, and important items of mail have gone missing. It simply isn’t good enough. These problems have all arisen from the management’s determination to change working practices, and have lead to low morale among the workforce, and far too much dependence on casual workers, who do not know the area they are expected to deliver.”

“We all spelt out to the Minister that we wanted to see the Post Office told in no uncertain terms that their present performance was unacceptable and had to be improved, and that we expected genuine consultation on any further proposals for closures.”

October 2004

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