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New report highlights the “significant inconvenienc
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The trends in post office closures and outreaches are leading to growing cracks in coverage and causing significant inconvenience and uncertainty for the people living in these communities.” This was the conclusion that Citizens Advice came to after a new research of the post office network. The organisation found that 1,291 post offices in Britain were ‘temporarily closed’ in September 2021, nearly twice as many as the 662 in September 2017. Although the closures were meant to be ‘temporary’, Citizens Advice found that they are “often closed for a significant period of time – more than eight in 10 for over a year”.
PART TIME OUTREACHES “One in three rural post offices in Britain are now provided as part-time outreaches,” the report continues. “These services are open for an average of only five and a half hours a week.” Rural communities appear to be hit the most because of the closures, where people and small businesses rely on post office services the most. Citizens Advice found that 23% of rural residents use a post office at least once a week. Older and disabled people, carers, and people who don’t use the internet are also disproportionately impacted, the report added. “I think it’s extremely unacceptable that we’ve only got a service for so many
hours of the week,” one interviewee mentions in the report, “because a lot of people will be living hand-to-mouth.” “If their benefit payment comes through and they withdraw it at the post office, and they can’t get to the post office or it doesn’t exist anymore on the morning where they get that money, they might not have anything to eat,” it said.
10 I SLRMAG.CO.UK / ISSUE 90 / WEDNESDAY 2ND FEBRUARY 2022
REPORT REJECTED The Post Office has vehemently rejected the report. “[The] Post Office does not accept that this report accurately reflects our network of 11,500 Post Offices that has been stable for a decade,” it said. “Whilst banks and traditional retailers have reduced their presence on the high street and in towns and villages, Post Office is sustaining and strengthening its
