Councillor follows up Co-op survey

Parish Councillor Geoff Seddon was one of the people surveyed in the Co-op last Saturday. On Monday morning, he sent the following email to the company that carried out the survey, Principles Research of Leeds.

"On Saturday 21st September I was interviewed by your Colin Caplan. I have no problem with the interview itself but, as a Parish Councillor, am extremely concerned at the content of the questionnaire.

"The purpose of the questions appeared to be to ascertain whether the public would be willing to use a postal counter in the local Co-op rather than the Post Office in the village. The current Post Office performs a number of functions that a postal counter could not. The death of the current Post Office could lead to the death of the village.

"As a Parish Councillor I would like to know who has commissioned the survey. My concern is that it is the soon-to-be privatised Royal Mail. Can you please confirm or deny my suspicions.

"I realise that you may be bound by commercial confidentiality, but a simple "no" will do. Alternatively, I can be contacted on 01270 811282."

Geoff Seddon says: "Within a few minutes I was contacted by a representative of Principles Research, who told me the following:

• The research is being carried out for The Co-operative Food;
• Six different stores were chosen for the survey with a mix of backgrounds –
• some with a postal counter already
• some with no postal counter and a Post Office in the locality and
• some with no postal counter but no Post Office in the locality.

"Audlem was one of those being used for comparison purposes and there is no intention of placing a postal counter in its Co-op. The representative also told me that she would pass on my comments on to The Co-operative Food, in case they might wish to contact me."

Geoff added "Hopefully this should put people's minds at rest about the future of Audlem Post Office."

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