'Funding threat' for Ribble Valley outreach post offices

12:28pm Friday 25th July 2008

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TWO part-time Ribble Valley post offices may be under threat due to a lack of funding.

Members of the House of Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee said so-called ‘outreach’ services could be axed after hearing concerns of providers around the country.

It follows the closure of 24 East Lancs post offices this year when cuts were made to services by Post Office bosses.

It resulted in part-time outreach services being installed in village halls in Bashall Eaves and Bolton-by-Bowland.

In a report, the group of MPs said: “We remain concerned that funding provided for outreach services may be inadequate. If this is the case, outreach services will fail and the network be diminished.

“A significant amount of public funding is provided to sustain the network. We need to be confident the public receives the services this is meant to secure.

“We recommend that the National Audit Office investigate the financial arrange-ments for outreach services.”

The report also said Royal Mail and the Post Office should provide ‘clear inform-ation’ on what services Royal Mail expects to be provided, how it works out what to pay for them, and how much they actually cost to deliver.

It came after Post Office Ltd’s managing director Alan Cook told the MPs that the money provided was not enough.

This led MPs to question whether Royal Mail was using the Post Office to ‘cross-subsidise’ some of its mail services.

Committee chairman Peter Luff said: “It is possible this is down to inefficiency at Post Office Ltd, but it is also possible that it is because Royal Mail Group is inappropriately using Post Office Ltd, which receives state support, to cross-subsidise its mail services.

“We urge the independent review of mail services and Postcomm to look at the relationship between the two bodies.”