Post Office campaigner says branches should be expanded with more services

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/business/ ... s-34138617

The Post Office is consulting on the closure of 115 directly owned branches within its 11,500 branch network

Lord Arbuthnot, a key figure in bringing the Post Office Horizon scandal to light, has argued for an expansion of the Post Office network and a broader range of services, despite current considerations to cut branches.

During a House of Lords debate on Monday, the Conservative peer, who was pivotal in exposing the wrongful convictions of hundreds of subpostmasters due to the Post Office's faulty accounting system, expressed his vision for the future of the institution: "I believe in the Post Office.

"And I think that the future of the Post Office is as a network of essential hubs, spread throughout the country, holding communities together, giving people the chance to do their banking, to meet on a social basis, to interact with Government and other agencies and more services, including healthcare."

He questioned the logic behind the proposed closures, asking: "And that’s a future that would build up the country’s resilience, and if that is right, should we not be expanding the network rather than reducing it? "

The Post Office is currently consulting on shutting down 115 of its directly owned branches within its 11,500 branch network, a move that puts about 1,000 jobs at risk as part of a major overhaul aimed at increasing postmaster pay by £250m over the next five years.

Lord Arbuthnot became actively involved in the IT issues faced by the Post Office when former subpostmaster Jo Hamilton approached him in 2009, while he was serving as MP for North East Hampshire. He joined the House of Lords earlier this year.

Ms Hamilton was convicted of false accounting and ordered to pay the Post Office £36,000 due to an error in Fujitsu’s Horizon software. She later joined forces with other wrongfully convicted subpostmasters and met with Post Office executives, including disgraced former CEO Paula Vennells, who later returned her CBE.

Lord Arbuthnot described the situation as the "greatest scandal I have ever seen in the criminal justice process" during the Post Office inquiry. Between 1999 and 2015, over 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted.

Labour business minister Baroness Jones of Whitchurch stated that the closures were not a certainty and alternative funding options were being explored to keep them open. "We are trying to find a way to keep these post offices open in whatever way that we can, whether it is providing different services or under different management," she told the House of Lords.

In response to Lord Arbuthnot, Lady Jones said: "Firstly I should pay tribute to (him) for all the work that he’s done on this issue over the years, and nobody in here knows the challenges better than he does."

"I absolutely agree with him. There is potentially a rosy future for the Post Office in exactly the way he described as a network of basic service provision hubs, in addition to the banking hubs that we have also seen expanding."

The statement stresses the importance of financial accuracy and highlights the Post Office's untapped potential: "So, we need to ensure that we get the finances of this right. But I think we can all see the potential of the Post Office network to provide far more than it is doing at the current time, providing the community hub in the way that we were just talking about, but also providing public service hubs."

Additionally, the statement underscores the significant role the Post Office could play for those not online: "Particularly when we move towards a lot of services being digital and online, the Post Office will have a role to provide for those people who are digitally excluded in some way, so that they will have that point of contact, a face-to-face person will be able to help them access those services, so they do have an essential role in the future."