Alan calls for an urban review of Hampshire Post Office plan
19th November 2007
Alan Whitehead has written to the Post Office Network asking them to postpone their decisions on closing post office branches in Hampshire until a number of fundamental questions have been answered about how their list of proposed closures was drawn up.
In a submission to the Public Consultation on the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area Plan, Dr Whitehead raises concerns that the Network has failed to take into account ‘urban obstacles,’ like dual carriageways and busy city roads, in its assessments for how accessible post office branches are. The failure by the Network to consider such obstacles could have severe implications for the Network’s assessment of which branches are feasible to close in a particular area.
As part of the Post Office Network’s Area Plan, the Network produces a Branch Access Report (BAR) for every branch it is proposing to close. Part of these BARs detail what alternative branches are available to customers currently using the branch marked for closure, and how easy it would be for those customers to get to those alternative branches.
The BARs consider issues such as bus access, distance to the alternative branch (95% of urban customers are supposed to still be within 1 mile road distance of an alternative branch after the proposed closures), as well as any terrain or geographical features that might pose as significant obstacles. However, whilst rural obstacles such as ”rivers, mountains and valleys, motorways and sea crossings to islands” are considered as obstacles worth noting in the reports, urban obstacles such as dual carriageways, busy roads, dimly lit parks or underpasses appear not to have been considered at all.
Dr Whitehead attempted to clarify whether or not urban obstacles had in fact been included in the BARs before making a formal submission to the public consultation. However in its reply the Post Office Network again failed to provide a clear answer to whether or not the kind of obstacles most likely to be found in cities were considered important enough to be included in their assessments, only restating its position in the original Area Plan that routes to alternative branches were considered, and providing no additional detail.
Responding to that lack of detail, Dr Whitehead is now officially calling for a review of the proposed closures until the issue of urban obstacles has been clarified.
Dr Whitehead said:
“It is a shame that the Post Office Network has failed on two occasions to answer very clear questions about how there Area Plan Hampshire was drawn up. The types of obstacles faced by my constituents are often very different to the types of obstacles faced by people living in rural areas. We don’t have many rivers or mountains in Southampton, but we do have a series of very busy A Roads, including ones right next to one of the branches marked for closure. Urban obstacles like busy roads, dual carriage-ways and poorly lit parks and underpasses can act as a real impediment to customers trying to get somewhere on foot. The Post Office Network needs to demonstrate that they have taken into account the kinds of obstacles faced by my constituents, and they have so far fundamentally failed to do so.”
Dr Whitehead has also raised concerns with the Network regarding the fact that 2 out of the 4 branch closures in the Southampton Test constituency both fall in one of the city’s most deprived areas. The branches marked for closure at 48 Lodge Road and 110 Saint Mary’s Road both fall within Bevois ward. Bevois includes the highest ranked Super Output Area for the 2004 Indices of Multiple Deprivation in Southampton, the 5th highest ranked in the whole of Hampshire, and is within the top 13% of most deprived wards in England. Dr Whitehead has challenged the Post Office Network to demonstrate how it can claim to have assessed the demographics and social need of a particular community as part of the overall Area Plan, while at the same time concentrating branch closures in one of the most deprived wards in the south.
Dr Whitehead’s letter to the Post Office Network ends:
“On the basis of the Network’s continued inability to demonstrate that it has taken proper consideration of the types of obstacles that might impede my constituents access to alternative branches, and due to the lack of weight given to indices of deprivation in the assessment of community need, I am formally requesting you comprehensively review your Branch Access Reports and Area Plan for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Until a proper review has been conducted, I would ask you postpone all plans for branch closures, as this is the only way to ensure that every community in Hampshire will be seen to get a fair deal.”
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More information
- The Post Office Network’s letter regarding the temporary closure of the Aldermoor branch in February 2007 stated:
“The provision of a Post Office service to our customers in the Aldermoor area is of paramount importance to us, and we will continue to work hard to restore normal services in this vicinity as soon as possible. In this respect, we would welcome any applications from potential retail partners interested in running a Post Office branch on behalf of Post Office Ltd. Should you know of any prospective candidates, please feel free to provide them with our Agency Recruitment team contact number...”