Co-op survey on postal services

As a number of Chatbox comments show, customer surveys on a post office counter service run by the Co-op will have raised concern over the future of the Audlem village Post Office.

Customers in the village Co-op were quizzed at the weekend over their attitudes to using the village Co-op for a counter postal service.

The survey comes in the wake of the formal announcement from the government of its plans to sell off Royal Mail.

The privatisation of Royal Mail is expected to have a very significant impact on the Post Office network.

Although Royal Mail is a separate company from the Post Office, an estimated third of the income of sub postmasters comes from work carried out for Royal Mail.

And Royal Mail contracts are considered crucial for the long-term survival of hundreds of rural post offices.

Although there is no suggestion that Audlem Post Office could close, a privatised Royal Mail will be almost certain to look to cheaper ways to deliver goods and services.

It will leave supermarket chains like the Co-op, for example, in a much better position to undercut smaller shops in the bidding for rural Post Office franchises.

So retailers like the Co-op are now sounding out the commercial possibilities that could arise in the fallout from Royal Mail privatisation.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) had pleaded with the Government to halt the privatisation, accusing ministers of taking a "reckless gamble with the future of the post office network".

The union is also pressing ahead with a strike ballot in protest at issues linked to privatisation and industrial action could start next month.

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