“It is strange that the government let the lofty debate over the national network last three months, yet gave local communities just a few short weeks to fight for their local post offices.” 

“This inadequate consultation process showed disregard for local people, especially those in rural areas.  The government has been very quick in forcing thousands of post offices to shut up shop for good, but the fact that many areas are still waiting for promised ‘outreach’ services will be seen as further proof that this exercise was conducted by London-based bean-counters without considering properly the needs of local communities.”

Mr Bacon was speaking as the National Audit Office published its report into the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s (BERR’s) programme of post office.  In May 2007, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) approved plans to close up to 2,500 post offices run by sub-postmasters, partly offset by at least 500 new Outreach services, leaving a network of around 12,000 outlets.  Following a 12 week national consultation on the future of the post office network, which included the issue of the length of local consultations, BERR determined that there should be a six week consultation on each of the area plans.

The 42 local public consultations run by Post Office Ltd on the closure plans resulted in the withdrawal of 92 closure proposals, and 48 others were brought forward as substitutes.  The NAO found that the handling of some closures suffered from poor communication, causing resentment among some local customers.  At March 2009, 433 of the 500 planned services were open.  Planned refurbishments to nearly 700 existing post offices expected to take more business as a result of closures have been completed in only 447 post offices.